presumably unintentional gaffe

BOLTON STUFF
* "Washington is in hilarity over Secretary Rice's presumably unintentional gaffe, trying to "reassure" Republican senators that they need not worry about John Bolton's bad manners, because she will "supervise" him to make sure he doesn't blow-up the UN" LINK

* "Sources in the White House tell TWN that there is genuine shock and disbelief among the Executive Office ranks about the difficulties of getting Bolton confirmed for the U.N. One source reported that "this all seems so unprecedented. Who knew who John Bolton was before all this began anyway?"" LINK

* " Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, placed a hold on the nomination, according to her spokesman, David Sandretti. He said she wanted to get State Department documents that Democrats have been seeking involving Mr. Bolton's dealings with American intelligence agencies over Syria." LINK

* "Of course, even while it remains in limbo, the fight over Bolton's nomination has already brought to a world stage the discomfort many Americans, moderate Republicans and Democrats have with this White House's inappropriate choice of this most unilateralist, extremist, abusive figure to represent the country at the UN. And it didn't have to be all or nothing, it doesn't have to be all or nothing, except that that the White House insists on making it so." LINK

* "As the GOP becomes increasingly dominated by extremists and barren of moderates, the disconnect between its politicos and the silent majority of America's moderate constituents will become more pronounced, and seems poised to become its own political dynamic. "It's like a Soviet military parade," historian David Greenberg writes of the Bolton latest. "Displaying power makes people fear your power." And revolt." LINK

* "Eric Ueland, chief of staff for the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, said the Bolton nomination would probably come to the full Senate after lawmakers resolved a dispute over confirmation votes for Bush's judicial nominees, which is expected to be taken up next week. He said the Republicans hoped that would leave time for a vote on Bolton before the Senate's Memorial Day recess." LINK

* "A spokesman for Lugar, Andy Fisher, said Voinovich had warned the Republican chairman on Tuesday that he was prepared to vote against the nomination, a step that at best would have left any vote on whether to recommend Bolton to the Senate deadlocked in a 9-9 tie. Since then, Fisher said, Lugar and Voinovich had extensive discussions, and the chairman ultimately persuaded the senator from Ohio to support the plan to send the nomination to the full Senate without the committee's passing judgment... Voinovich said he was willing to "let the Senate work its will," but said he would plead with colleagues "to consider the decision and its consequences carefully."" LINK

* heres ari2 dissembling on bolton, and wife-raper hager LINK
ftr, lets not forget that hager was appointed to the fda panel, and the chairman of the fda is ari2's brother.

* clemons: " (UPI) -- The battle over John Bolton, President Bush's pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is not a competition between Senate Democrats and Republicans. It's actually a brewing civil war inside the Republican foreign-policy establishment. None of the dramatic events of the four public hearings to date on Bolton's nomination would have been possible without the active complicity of a large swath of the GOP establishment." LINK

* "Move America Forward maintains on its Web site, right next to each other, two related political campaigns: the first to support Bolton's nomination to the United Nations and the second to "Evict the U.N. from U.S. Soil."" LINK

* clemons on demnow: "And Bolton in mid-2003 -- I actually ran into one of John Bolton’s staff, and without mentioning the person's name, the person said -- because I was very surprised at some of the things he had said on North Korea in a setting in South Korea -- and he basically said that if my boss had his way, we would be at war with North Korea right now. " LINK

* ""We believe there is a majority of the Senate that agrees with the president that John Bolton is exactly the person we need at the United Nations during this critical time of reform," President Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, said, adding that he hoped that "Democrats wouldn't try to play politics with this nomination."" LINK

* "Republicans are hoping to shame Democrats into a quick vote on Mr. Bolton. They argue that he needs to be in place by June so that the United States will have the latitude it needs to press its concerns about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program before the Security Council." LINK
this is the big question that ive been asking for weeks that nobody seems to be interested in.