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11/10/06

FT.com - "BOLTON - US temp. ambassador to UN next in line to get the boot by Democrats"


For the complete report in the FT.com, click on this link

"BOLTON - US temp. ambassador to UN next in line to get the boot by Democrats"

President George W. Bush has asked Congress to approve John Bolton, his controversial ambassador to the United Nations, for a second term, in the face of opposition from key Democrats.

But White House hopes of keeping Mr Bolton in New York were immediately dashed when Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican member of the foreign relations committee who just lost his seat in Tuesday’s elections, said he would oppose Mr Bolton. Joseph Biden, the Delaware Democrat who will become chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee in January, on Thursday said there was no point for the committee to even discuss the appointment.

“I see no point in considering Mr Bolton’s nomination again in the foreign relations committee because regardless of what happens there, he is unlikely to be considered by the full Senate,” said Mr Biden. The move comes in spite of conciliatory rhetoric from Mr Bush on Thursday that he wants to work with Democrats after they routed the Republicans in the congressional mid-term elections.

Steve Clemons a Senior Fellow and Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation says about the Bolton nomination by the White House: "The question people should ask is not whether this push on Bolton will get him confirmed by the Senate -- it is why the White House continues to push this pugnacious Ambassador after the elections that took place and what they think they "gain" from losing this battle in the Senate."

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