13.5.05
Bolton passed on to full Senate vote
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sent John Bolton's nomination as UN ambassador to the full Senate for a vote.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why much of the media is painting this as some kind of "rebuke" or minor defeat for Bush. The challenge was getting Bolton's nomination out of committee, where one Republican with half a conscience could step up and kill it, and into the full Senate, controlled by the Republicans and populated by worthless shitheads like Joe Lieberman. In the full Senate, Bolton cannot lose. Bush succeeded. Far from being a defeat or a rebuke, getting Bolton's nomination out of committee is a major victory for him.
According to the WaPo's article, Bush's pressure on Voinovich was decisive:
Voinovich in recent days had privately signaled he would vote against Bolton, GOP aides said, but in a deal arranged before today's vote, he agreed not to block the nomination from reaching the full Senate.
What is this deal? We know what the coward Voinovich delivered, what his end of the bargain was. But what did he get in return? A pledge from Bush and his army of cretins that they wouldn't ruin his career or break his kneecaps?
Voinovich had this to say for himself:
"Mr. Chairman, I am not so arrogant to think that I should impose my judgment and perspective of the U.S. position in the world community on the rest of my colleagues. We owe it to the president to give Mr. Bolton an up-or-down-vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate."
This cowardice and lack of principle is praised in this editorial as indicating a "nuanced" position. It is nothing of the sort. What does Voinovich and the Cincinnati Post's editors think his job entails? Why did the voters elect him, if not to make hard decisions and defend his "judgment" and "perspective"?
Bolton's now-certain confirmation and the press's reaction to it are indications of part of what is wrong with America today. Cowardice is praised; psychosis is seen as strength; and journalists cannot tell a political victory from a defeat, preferring instead to present meaningless utterances as meaningful defiance. So Bolton will now be confirmed and the UN will be gone.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sent John Bolton's nomination as UN ambassador to the full Senate for a vote.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why much of the media is painting this as some kind of "rebuke" or minor defeat for Bush. The challenge was getting Bolton's nomination out of committee, where one Republican with half a conscience could step up and kill it, and into the full Senate, controlled by the Republicans and populated by worthless shitheads like Joe Lieberman. In the full Senate, Bolton cannot lose. Bush succeeded. Far from being a defeat or a rebuke, getting Bolton's nomination out of committee is a major victory for him.
According to the WaPo's article, Bush's pressure on Voinovich was decisive:
Voinovich in recent days had privately signaled he would vote against Bolton, GOP aides said, but in a deal arranged before today's vote, he agreed not to block the nomination from reaching the full Senate.
What is this deal? We know what the coward Voinovich delivered, what his end of the bargain was. But what did he get in return? A pledge from Bush and his army of cretins that they wouldn't ruin his career or break his kneecaps?
Voinovich had this to say for himself:
"Mr. Chairman, I am not so arrogant to think that I should impose my judgment and perspective of the U.S. position in the world community on the rest of my colleagues. We owe it to the president to give Mr. Bolton an up-or-down-vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate."
This cowardice and lack of principle is praised in this editorial as indicating a "nuanced" position. It is nothing of the sort. What does Voinovich and the Cincinnati Post's editors think his job entails? Why did the voters elect him, if not to make hard decisions and defend his "judgment" and "perspective"?
Bolton's now-certain confirmation and the press's reaction to it are indications of part of what is wrong with America today. Cowardice is praised; psychosis is seen as strength; and journalists cannot tell a political victory from a defeat, preferring instead to present meaningless utterances as meaningful defiance. So Bolton will now be confirmed and the UN will be gone.
