John Bolton calls it quits

[falcon]

John Bolton calls it quits
U.N. ambassador to step down as recess appointment expires

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Bush Accepts Bolton's U.N. Resignation
Dec 04 9:55 AM US/Eastern

By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON

Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.

Bolton's nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.

Critics have questioned Bolton's brusque style and whether he could be an effective bureaucrat who could force reform at the U.N.

President Bush gave Bolton the job temporarily in August 2005, while Congress was in recess. Under that process, the appointment expires when Congress formally adjourns, no later than early January.

The White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination last month. But with Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw "no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again."

While Bush could not give Bolton another recess appointment, the White House was believed to be exploring other ways of keeping him in the job, perhaps by giving him a title other than ambassador. But Bolton informed the White House he intended to leave when his current appointment expires, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

Bush planned to meet with Bolton and his wife later Monday in the Oval Office.

As late as last month, Bush, through his top aides, said he would not relent in his defense of Bolton, despite unwavering opposition from Democrats who view Bolton as too combative for international diplomacy.

Perino said that among Bolton's accomplishments, he assembled coalitions addressing North Korea's nuclear activity, Iran's uranium enrichment and reprocessing work and the horrific violence in Darfur. She said he also made reform at the United Nations a top issue because the United States is searching for a more "credible" and more "effective."

"Ambassador Bolton served his country with distinction and he achieve a great deal at the United Nations," Perino said.

"Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassdor Bolton's confirmation was blocked by a Democratic filibuster, and this is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process," she said. "Nominees deserve the opportunity for a clean up or down vote. Ambassador Bolton was never given that opportunity."

Perino said Bush had reluctantly accepted Bolton's decision to leave when his current appointment expired.

www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/04/D8LQ3E7O0.html

[Backstop]

Specifically talking about the UN's attempt to ban guns, Mr. Bolton did a fine job representing our Constitution.

His replacement may not be so accommodating.

[falcon]

Backstop wrote; Specifically talking about the UN's attempt to ban guns, Mr. Bolton did a fine job representing our Constitution.

I just ask the question that Republicans and Bush would not take up the fight to keep Bolton at his post, thats sad because now we will get soome Liberal Commie. If things keeping going in this direction within the Republican party 08 is gone.

[falcon]

Getting rid of Bolton,

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Real bully was Sen. Dodd, not Bolton

December 7, 2006
BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist
Over lunch in New York two weeks ago, John Bolton told me he was thinking about abandoning his long struggle for confirmation as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and leaving government service. But he asked me to defer writing about his situation. The White House felt anything I wrote would undermine last-ditch efforts at confirmation.

That reflects continuing failure by George W. Bush and his team, six years in power, to perceive the implacable nature of Democratic opposition. The White House was still eager not to offend Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Democrat most determined to block Bolton. Furthermore, Bush aides to the end sought to bring around lame duck Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee to allow Bolton's nomination on the Senate floor during the lame-duck session.

All such efforts were futile. Dodd and his colleagues were determined to get outspoken conservative Bolton, and they got him. Chafee kept showing contempt for his nominal party even after the White House saved him from defeat in the primary. The Democratic election victory on Nov. 7 sealed Bolton's fate, ending Republican efforts to find another two years for Bolton even without confirmation.

A senior White House aide told me Bush had been "considering" an offer of deputy secretary of state (which requires Senate confirmation) or Cabinet-level counselor (which does not). When he decided last week he wanted out, Bolton had no interest in any alternative post. But neither job was even mentioned to Bolton.

Dodd's campaign has been relentless and unfair. "He's been a very ineffective bully," Dodd has said in describing Bolton's performance at the United Nations as a recess appointee. In fact, the permanent U.S. staff there regards Bolton as President Bush's most effective U.N. envoy, his record climaxed by achieving a unanimous Security Council vote on the Korean question. Dodd's delight over Bolton's departure is shared at the United Nations by anti-American Third World ambassadors and U.N. bureaucrats.

The continuing Democratic rationale for opposing Bolton is the administration's refusal to turn over intelligence intercepts requested by Bolton as under secretary of state. But the liberal cabal that opposed him for the United Nations also voted against him in 2001 for the under secretary's post. That includes Sen. Joseph Biden, now returned as Foreign Relations Committee chairman. He tends to vote against Republican presidential nominees when there is any opposition.

But Dodd, striking a pose of smiling affability, has been the driving force behind the assault on Bolton. An ardent supporter of normalizing relations with Cuba, Dodd is inexorable in blocking any nominee hostile to Fidel Castro's dictatorship.

White House aides were living in an unreal world when they privately blamed Dodd's hostility to Bolton on me and blamed my hostility to Dodd on Bolton. In fact, I was scourging Dodd for his pro-Castro bias long before Bolton became an issue.

The fecklessness at the White House in managing Bolton's nomination is exemplified by the feeling there to the end that Chafee could be brought along. Having poured money into Chafee's Rhode Island Republican primary campaign against a conservative challenger, Bush in private is furious over betrayal by the maverick Republican. Chafee's fellow GOP senators believe that if he were re-elected, he would have permitted Bolton's name to go to the Senate floor. Quirky to the end, Chafee says the Democratic election victory is reason to block Bolton.

"It was a travesty," Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, in describing Bolton's demise, told me. "Bipartisanship is a two-way street." Coleman, who as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations probed U.N. corruption, believes Bolton "was the best" of Bush's U.N. ambassadors.

Now Coleman loses his chairmanship, and Bolton is gone. No wonder U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton who brazenly has interfered in U.S. politics, was caught smiling at Turtle Bay this week.

www.suntimes.com/news/novak/163409,CST-EDT-novak07.article

[American Patriot]

Falcon...
you really, really really need to read up on the Constitution, constitutional law and how people like Ambassadors get their offices.

It's really not relevant if he quits, resigns now is it? Bush has NOTHING to do with that situation.

Secondly, he has to be CONFIRMED by CONGRESS. WHO is in CHARGE now? Well... the dummies are.

That means that REGARDLESS if Bush and the Republicans want him in, he ISN'T GETTING IN ANYWAY.

The Democrats will keep him out.

Geez stop blaming the problem Republicans...

[falcon]

Rick
You really, really,,, really need to come into the 21st century and start to take notice of what the American public is asking for. You live in a black and white world which sometimes has no point in some of the processes that takes place in our world today. Most Americans would like to see Bush and Members of the Republican Party start to stand up to the Democrats and tell them like it is.

By Bush using his position as president and making it public of what the hold-ups are (Dodd) plus the fact that this shows that the Democrats do not want to process the up or down vote. Bush needs to showcase these points because we all know the news media will not. So like I said come in out of the dark for once in your life and start showing some realization.

By the way I understand Mr.Botlon resigned his position and has every right to do so. I understand constitutional law and there is a time and a place for everything. By Bush showcasing the events it highlights the fact that Democrats are the problem. By showcasing these events Bush will regain a lot of ground with the American Conservatives. Hopefully this will help you understand what is going on in the real world and then you can start to apply this to the way you review a process.

And, yes I blame the Republicans for not standing their ground and stop with all the PC junk.

[Ryan Ruck]

Rick and Sean,
If you would would you please repost all the info about the possibility of US negotiation with terrorists in the Terrorism forum in their own thread.

Thanks!

ETA: And please keep all further posts to this thread on the subject of John Bolton's resignation.