Well folks…this just may be the big one that sinks the lying bastards. Can a gal hope? The State department backtracks on the claim that Bolton never testified concerning the CIA investigation.
“[Update]”Asked about the possibility of a recess appointment for Bolton, White House spokesman Scott McClellan gave a strong hint.
“We do need a permanent representative at the United Nations. This is a critical time and it’s important to continue moving forward on comprehensive reform,” McClellan said.
“Clearly John Bolton is someone who has enjoyed majority support from the United States Senate, but unfortunately Senate Democrats have taken the path of playing politics,” he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050729/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_bolton
“Democratic senators said the admission should forestall Bush from using his authority to give Bolton a temporary appointment to the U.N. post, without Senate confirmation, when the Senate goes on vacation in August.
Bolton was interviewed by the State Department inspector general in 2003 as part of a joint investigation with the CIA into prewar Iraqi attempts to buy nuclear materials from Niger, State Department spokesman Noel Clay said Thursday.
His statement came hours after another State Department official said Bolton had correctly answered a Senate questionnaire when he wrote that he had not testified to a grand jury or been interviewed by investigators in any inquiry over the past five years.
Clay said Bolton “didn’t recall being interviewed by the State Department’s inspector general” when he filled out the form. “Therefore, his form, as submitted, was inaccurate,” Clay said. “He will correct it.”
Bolton, former undersecretary for arms control and international security, had no role in a separate criminal investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity, Clay said.”
SO now we have this Creepy Bully just in time before the August recess lying. Do you think Bush will still do a recess appointment?
Yes. I have seen nothing to date to make me believe that Bush won’t just do whatever the hell he wants, regardless of popular support or who he enrages.
It will just be his endearing little way of giving the Senate the same finger he gave the press 2 days ago.
Doesn’t care if 60%+ of Americans would like to see him gone NOW, flips off the press whenever he feels like it. He doesn’t fuckin care and I think Bolton will be a recess appointment. I have also been wrong lately about most everything that I thought he would do and if I’m wrong about this how refreshing that will be!
I hope we are wrong and the repugs pressure bush into nominating someone else. I do think you are both right but boy would I like to be wrong about this one. To Bush though, what’s one more lie amongst so many.
I would not normally ask for recommends but will this time because I think this is truly important and it is rapidly rolling off the recent diary list.
i have a heavy schedule today but will try to pop in from time to time through out the day. If there are any updates I will also post them as they occur.
I also want to apologise for the crappy format in this diary. I will work on cleaning it up later. I was in a huge hurry to get this up.
“Clearly John Bolton is someone who has enjoyed majority support from the United States Senate, but unfortunately Senate Democrats have taken the path of playing politics,” he said.
Who are they freaking kidding? If he enjoyed that kind of support, they would have rammed him through against the Dems objections.
I’m sure that the Arrogant A–hole will appoint Bolton; he’d never miss another opportunity to rub the world’s face in his steaming piles of dung…
You really need to learn to speak up and tell people how you really feel…<snark>.
I’m sorry…my need for a vacation is starting to show…2 more days till the beach, 2 more days till the beach…
I promise to be all sweetness and light when I come back- well, for a little while anyway!
Have a wonderfully relaxing time and no news for at least a week…lol!
If Bush doesn’t do a recess appointment I’ll be greatly surprised. When have we ever seen bush acknowledge in any way/shape or form he may have been wrong about someone or something? I think he believes if he doesn’t appoint Bolton that would mean he made a ‘mistake’…something as we know from the debates he can’t even contemplate.
Of course if he doesn’t he’ll just nominate someone equally repugnant-might be hard to do but bush does seem to have a gift(I could say the only thing he does seem to be good at) for finding the most whacko, corrupt assholes ever.
So Bolton now doesn’t remember testifying before a Grand Jury about an investigation so serious it could lead to indictments for perjury or even treason…yeah right…just some silly little investigation of no importance that slipped his mind. What was the phrase from Watergate?…’at that point in time’?…I don’t remember..boy was I sooooo sick of that phrase. Seems like a lot of people are starting to ‘disremember’ from Bolton to Roberts to well take your pick.
’nuff said
Here is a realistic/pragmatic analysis, rather than ideological/emotional analysis.
(a) Fact: Pres. Bush is loyal to his friends and nominees (whether you think its the right character trait or not is not the issue here).
Compare that to Pres. Clinton’s abandoning Lonnie Guinner’s nomination.
Conclusion: Bush would get Bolton the job, one way or another. (See the poll results)
(b) Fact: Pres. Bush does what he says. (whether you think its good or bad is not the issue here). Remember his campaign speech – “Whether you agree with me or not, you know where I stand.”
Conclusion: Bush would get Bolton the job, one way or another. (See the poll results)
(c) Fact: Pres. Bush gives the neoconservatives what they want in the foreign policy, including the UN Ambassadorship. Bolton was the neocon’s man.
Conclusion: Bush would get Bolton the job, one way or another. (See the poll results)
(d) Fact: It appears Bolton will get nominated. End of story.
(e) Fact: The battle to stop Bolton’s nomination is lost.
Conclusion: As a practical, realistic, pragmatic matter the Senate Democrats lost this battle!
3. PR battle:
(a) Democrats will accuse the Administration for failure to cooperate. Nothing new. The score: No gain or minor gain in favor of Democrats.
(b) Republicans will accuse the Democrats for filibuster. Public in large, and the independents don’t like “filibuster.”
If the confirmation was held (again regardless of what you think of the proper role of the filibuster), Bolton would get at least 51 votes.
The score: Net loss for Democrats.
(c) Republicans will accuse the Democrats as obstructionist. To sum up the campaign against Sen. Daschle in one word – “obstructionist”. Sen. Daschle, the Senate Minority Leader,a very very powerful position, lost.
The score: Net loss for Democrats.
Practical consequences: Watch out for the accusations (b & c – supra) in 2006 against the Democratic Senators.
3. Democrats lost political capital. Instead of opposing Bolton, when they could have done other things:
(a) oppose CAFTA, which affects real people with real families losing real jobs. It passed 217-215 votes. Was it hard to find 2 extra votes? A Bread and butter issue.
(b) prevent or find a compromise in order to prevent the labor split. A real nuts and bolts issue for the 2006 and 2008 elections.
(c) oppose the Bankruptcy Bill. It affects low income and middle income people. Another Bread and butter issue.
4. (a) If Sen. Biden (D-MBNA/Bank of America) thinks he will become the nominee by riding high on his opposition to Bolton, he is mistaken. Outside the Beltway and a few politically active/astute blogospheres, like this one, people don’t know who Bolton is.
(b) Don’t hold your breathe for Sen. Biden (representing MBNA and Bank of America) to help the ordinary people against the credit card companies. He would rather wage a losing battle against Bolton. Thanks Senator. You get the Democratic nomination.
Please, tell me one battle that they can win. Seriously. They can’t win shit until they get more seats in the Senate. This is as close to a victory as they are going to get at this point: stripping as much of Bolton’s cred as possible, and making Bush look like he isn’t a team player by having to bypass the Senate. This is as close to a victory as those of us cheering for the democrats in the Senate are going to get too. All of them FINALLY stood up for SOMETHING together, and actually got some bipartisan support in doing so.
In addition, this potentially sets the stage for the democrats to put up a bigger fight against Roberts (should they choose too…fingers crossed). Why? Because if anything comes up against Roberts, there are still a few (ok, maybe a couple) Republican Senators who will NOT appreciate Bush going around the Senate one bit. I think Bush thinks he still has a lot of political capital. This isn’t true; he’s merely riding the wave of having a majority in Congress. They’re slowly distancing themselves from him because they see the ship going down. And furthering that is the best that we can hope for, I’m afraid. And we did it right, totally right, on the Bolton appointment. This mustachioed menace should NOT be going to the UN, and most of the Senate, along with most of the American people, do know it.
Huh? What political capital? The dems have no political capital. If anything, they gained political capital because they finally showed that they’re not just a bunch of spineless jellyfish.
This is the best we could have realistically hoped for. Sad, but true.
It’s true that Bush rewards loyalty and does whatever the hell he wants, won’t back down, won’t admit a mistake, etc, all this is true, but I believe there’s another important element in why he has to promote and appoint and otherwise reward the thugs who have helped him hijack the White House.
THEY KNOW WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED!!!
Worse case scenario for Chimp is if any of these thugs EVER starts talking. He owes them because promises were made in return for dishing up the dirt that got him his job title and he can’t afford to take the chance that any of them will EVER be even a teensy weensy bit disgruntled for fear of what they may leak unofficially or testify officially under oath. It would be bad. VERY bad.
So if he does give Bolton a recess appointment, IMHO it will be mainly because he has no choice. Things are getting ugly for Chimp in the court of public opinion, despite the MSM falling in lockstep to regurgitate RNC talking points, but they could get lots uglier real fast, REAL fast if he doesn’t keep his promises to those (like Condi, Karl, Albert, Donny, Paul) who have sold their souls to the devil so he can be King of America.
So my money is on the recess appointment because Bolton knows too much and he’s just not the kind of guy you want mad at you. I think even someone as stupid and thick headed as Chimp might be making a few conciliatory and coalition building gestures towards the American people, if he could. But he can’t.
Supposedly, it is a done deal.
Not surprising!
I still have hope that someone we come out of the shadows to nail these guys. I watched “All The Pesident’s Men” again this evening. I swear to God, change the names and a few of the dirty deeds and it could be now. Yje paralells amzed me. If we could just find a “Woodstein”! There has to be someone/ones that want to see these total corrupt humans pay the time for the crime.