ALLEN TO THE RESCUE
Much is being made of the “hold” placed by Sen. Barbara
Boxer on the nomination of John Bolton to
the U.N. ambassadorship, but Senate Republicans expect to move
Bolton through before Memorial Day.
Over the weekend, there was some discussion of moving Bolton
ahead of the judicial fight that is set to detonate perhaps as
early as this week. Sen. George Allen, in
particular, has been pressing to move Bolton’s nomination ahead of
the judicial fight.
Regardless of where the Bolton nomination is placed in the
schedule, it’s interesting to note that Boxer’s demands for
releasing the hold were essentially drawn from the blogosphere,
where former Clintonites, current State Department nonpoliticals,
and congressional aides have been sharing rumors on the Bolton
case, everything from spousal abuse to bestiality.
Boxer is demanding the release of eight, perhaps ten, classified
NSA intercepts that contain U.S. names that Bolton reviewed as
undersecretary of state for nuclear proliferation, the release of
memos and drafts of a Bolton speech on Syria’s weapons programs,
and, finally, a review of the employment of a Bolton staffer who
also does outside consulting in foreign policy areas.
The employment of Matthew Freedman by Bolton
has been especially popular online grist for the rumor mill. A
blog
associated with the New America Foundation has been pushing the
Freedman story for weeks as the bombshell that could sink Bolton,
though there is very little real evidence to bear that out.
A staffer for Boxer says that the Senator has been in talks with
Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd,
both of whom had been pressing for the NSA intercepts, but that
staffers had been working with a number of outside groups on the
Bolton nomination. “We’re getting better at doing what the
Republicans have been doing with their outside groups going back to
the Clinton years,” says the staffer. “If you want to call it
coordination, do that, but this about winning, and we’re tired of
losing at every turn. The Bolton case has energized us a bit.”
As for timing of the vote, last Friday some Republicans were
surprised when Sen. Allen publicly called for Bolton’s nomination
to be taken up before the judges. “He’s only pushing because he
senses that he might get a bit more attention than [Majority Leader
Bill] Frist on the Bolton thing
for a couple of days,” says a Republican Senate staffer for a
western Senator. “Allen is running for President, and Frist is
going to be the star of the show for the next few weeks with the
judges coming to a head. Allen is just going to disappear.”
Allen, though, has earned props from conservatives and fellow
Republican Senators for his aggressive pushback on the Foreign
Relations Committee, something his chairman, Sen. Dick
Lugar, seemed incapable of during the last month.
JUDICIAL REVIEW
After a number of briefings by Senate leadership staff over the
past few weeks, it was believed that the first judge to be put
forward on the Senate floor in order for Republicans to break the
so-called Democratic filibuster would be former Interior Department
lawyer William Myers, nominated to the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
But on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist announced that Judges Priscilla
Owen and Janice Rogers Brown would be
linked this week to breaking the Democratic deadlock. Why? Because
of Sen. John McCain.
For all the talk of Sen. Trent Lott trying to
mediate a deal with Democrats to break the filibuster and stamp out
the fuse on the so-called “nuclear option” by allowing Democrats to
nix at least two nominees in return for a vote on the rest and
promise not to filibuster potential Supreme Court nominees, it was
McCain late last week attempting to broker a similar deal with
fellow Republicans and some Democrats.
“He was offering to throw Owen and Brown over the side, and we
weren’t going to let that happen,” says a Senate leadership aide.
“If he wants to continue to pursue a deal, we were going to limit
his options on who to nix. We think taking Owens and Brown off the
board limits the Senator’s negotiating options.”
Brown and Owen have been the top Democratic targets in the
filibuster debate. According to other Senate sources, McCain has
been talking to the usual suspects: Sens. Olympia
Snowe, Lincoln Chafee, Susan
Collins, Chuck Hagel, John
Warner, and Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen
Specter. In each of the discussions, McCain pointed to
Owen and Brown as the two who, if abandoned by the party, could
break the deadlock.
“Senator McCain was willing to let Owen and Brown go, if it
would get the others confirmed and get the Senate back on track,”
says a Judiciary Committee staffer with knowledge of the
conversation with Specter. “The chairman was not willing at that
time to look at the loss of Owen and Brown as an option.”
Specter apparently felt that being party to any plan that dumped
two of President Bush’s top nominations would place him in too much
peril with fellow Republicans both on the Judiciary Committee and
in his caucus.
Of the six, Hagel, Chafee, and Snowe have been the most
receptive to McCain’s entreaties. Chafee, according to sources,
apparently feels his passive behavior in allowing John
Bolton’s nomination out of the Foreign Relations Committee
last week is enough of a sop to the Bush team to allow him to show
his true stripes on the judges front.
