Bye-Bye, Bolton
I saw it first as a breaking link at realclearpolitics.com:
Rich Lowry posted the following insider account in The Corner (via Powerline):
Then there is this eyewitness report from a B4B commenter who watched the debacle unfold live:
Another commenter in the same thread added this:
328 years from now a man will, when similarly confronted with a spectre so appalling that it leaves him in open-mouthed stupefaction, throw back his head and laugh. And when asked if the spectre amuses him, he will reply, "No; but there are times when laughter is the only rational response."
It really hasn't taken me all that long to reach this point where I either burst capillaries or chuckle in cynical amusement. Perhaps the reason it feels so familiar is because this is the state of mind in which I spent much of Bill Clinton's second term, as he ran propaganda rings around incompetent Republicans who not only weren't in his league, not only weren't even playing the same game, but appeared blissfully unaware of all of it. It was like beholding political autism. It was like watching flies get de-winged. It was like sport-fishing with power saws.
Now the Democrats don't have Bill Clinton or the White House, they're led by the Barney Fife of American politics - and they're still running rings around incompetent Republicans.
Well, maybe that's not quite fair - not all Republicans are incompetent. Some are perfidious devilspawn (Donkspawn?).
The first commenter referenced above really got peeved at me this week for speaking these unpleasant truths. He scoffed at the very idea that the Democrats were still effectively running the country and all but accused me of betraying the GOP.
Follow the B4B link and read the rest of his comment. It would appear that today he's had his Damascus Road encounter.
This Bolton saga has become an absolutely classic GOP fiasco:
1) Republican president appoints outstanding conservative to a prominent public position;
2) The instant his/her confirmation hearings begin, the Democrats all but leap over the panel, swarm the poor bastard, and beat the living crap out of him/her;
3) Committee Republicans don't lift a finger in the nominee's defense, but just sit there meekly shuffling papers back and forth while the gory squeals fill the committee room all around them.
Just from these three steps you would get the strong impression that the Democrats were in the majority, wouldn't you? Such public star chambers were classic gladitorial sport in the bad old days when the "party of joyous vulgarity" was a congressional hegemon. Systematically laying waste to conservative/Republican witnesses was their committees' very raison d'etere.
Except, of course, that these days the Democrats are, numerically speaking, ten seats in the minority in the U.S. Senate.
You would think that that would rein the Donks in, wouldn't you? And it would, if Republicans had any concept of either ruthlessness or the necessity of exercising majority power.
Unfortunately, they have neither. Instead, they have backstabbing RINOs like John McCain, George Voinovich, and Chuck Hagel, and absolutely hapless boobs like Dick Lugar (whose constipated dignity will always be overwhelmed by Jim Geraghty's one-time observation that his name sounds like one you'd see in the credits of a porno flick) in leadership positions who are such easy marks that they never see these disasters coming.
And the backstabbing RINOs, as the second commenter observed, are simply the willing dupes of the minority party, which is running that chamber so effortlessly that Frist & Co., so obsessed with kumbayahism that they're walking on eggshells when they should be firing howitzers, aren't even dimly aware of it.
Oh, and did I mention that the nominee, Mr. Bolton, has spent these daily beatings pleading desperately that he is a convert to liberal foreign policy nostrums, up to and including kissing Kofi Annan's ass and taking his turn in the rotation as the UN Sec-Gen's palm-frond-waver? Has this self-abasement even slowed down the minority's smear barrage? And if any Committee Pachyderm had shown any inclination to conduct even the the most gentle-but-firm cross-examination of this "He looked at me cross-eyed fourteen years ago!" flying monkey brigade, might Mr. Bolton have felt a tad less bulldozed into making ideologically suicidal assurances that could only hamper him in his new job, assuming he still had a chance to be confirmed for it?
Now do you see why I'm laughing?
Just wait until Fristy gets his ass kicked on the filibuster-breaker vote (assuming he ever schedules it). I won't be able to straighten up then.
Republican Ohio Senator George Voinovich has told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he is "not comfortable" voting for the nomination of John Bolton to be the U.S. Ambassodor to the United Nations. Voinovich suggested that the committee delay a vote on the nomination that would send Bolton's name to the Senate Floor for a full Senate vote.After my initial reflex "WTF?!?" reaction, I surfed around to see if I could find any unfiltered details.
Committee Chairman Lugar (R.-Ind.) has agreed to postpone the vote until after the Senate's recess.
Rich Lowry posted the following insider account in The Corner (via Powerline):
1. The Senate went into a special recess so Bolton could be voted out. Voinovich knew this. He was on board. If he had a problem, he could have told Leadership before we went into a special recess.
2. Voinovich's reason for not voting for Bolton today? "I haven't been to the hearings and haven't heard all these allegations until now." Embarrassing.
3. Lugar could have solved this problem easily - he could have asked Voinovich to abstain if he didn't feel prepared to vote. He could have told him that he was embarrasing him (Lugar) and all Republicans for blindsiding him. He could have recessed for 5 minutes so Republicans could have talked to him.
4. Lugar postponed for three weeks. He could have called another meeting tomorrow morning and given people time to get to Voinovich.
5. Chafee - does anybody think he'll stick, now that Voinovich is giving him cover? [all but the last emphasis mine]
Then there is this eyewitness report from a B4B commenter who watched the debacle unfold live:
I watched the entire session of the Senate Foreign Relations committee today on CSPAN-2 and I'll tell you that Lugar tried to get a vote on the Bolton nomination to send it to the floor of the Senate for a final vote. Given that the committee is 10 Republicans vs 9 Democrats, the outcome should have been predictable. That is until Voinovich the Republican from Ohio stabbed Lugar in the back. Without any prior warning, he decided to announce to the committee, which Lugar had just told to vote on the issue, that he would not vote to recommend it to the floor. His reason: he hadn't attended the hearings so he was uninformed on what had transpired and therefore could not in good conscience vote to recommend. After Voinovich provided the political cover Hagel came out from under his rock to indicate that he may or may not vote to confirm Bolton. Lugar was betrayed by those two.
Up until then he was slapping around Kerry, Boxer, Dodd, Biden, and Sarbanes like ugly step-children. After that, he just threw up his hands and tried to get the best deal he could on the terms of the delay.
Another commenter in the same thread added this:
I saw Hagel talking to Boxer, Dodd, and Kerry, on the Senate floor before the Senate Hearing. Dodd was showing Hagel some papers and Kerry had his arm around Hagel. The picture said it all. I knew that the hearing was not going to go well, before it started. Hagel on the Senate floor as he talked with the Dems was grinning ear to ear.
328 years from now a man will, when similarly confronted with a spectre so appalling that it leaves him in open-mouthed stupefaction, throw back his head and laugh. And when asked if the spectre amuses him, he will reply, "No; but there are times when laughter is the only rational response."
It really hasn't taken me all that long to reach this point where I either burst capillaries or chuckle in cynical amusement. Perhaps the reason it feels so familiar is because this is the state of mind in which I spent much of Bill Clinton's second term, as he ran propaganda rings around incompetent Republicans who not only weren't in his league, not only weren't even playing the same game, but appeared blissfully unaware of all of it. It was like beholding political autism. It was like watching flies get de-winged. It was like sport-fishing with power saws.
Now the Democrats don't have Bill Clinton or the White House, they're led by the Barney Fife of American politics - and they're still running rings around incompetent Republicans.
Well, maybe that's not quite fair - not all Republicans are incompetent. Some are perfidious devilspawn (Donkspawn?).
The first commenter referenced above really got peeved at me this week for speaking these unpleasant truths. He scoffed at the very idea that the Democrats were still effectively running the country and all but accused me of betraying the GOP.
Follow the B4B link and read the rest of his comment. It would appear that today he's had his Damascus Road encounter.
This Bolton saga has become an absolutely classic GOP fiasco:
1) Republican president appoints outstanding conservative to a prominent public position;
2) The instant his/her confirmation hearings begin, the Democrats all but leap over the panel, swarm the poor bastard, and beat the living crap out of him/her;
3) Committee Republicans don't lift a finger in the nominee's defense, but just sit there meekly shuffling papers back and forth while the gory squeals fill the committee room all around them.
Just from these three steps you would get the strong impression that the Democrats were in the majority, wouldn't you? Such public star chambers were classic gladitorial sport in the bad old days when the "party of joyous vulgarity" was a congressional hegemon. Systematically laying waste to conservative/Republican witnesses was their committees' very raison d'etere.
Except, of course, that these days the Democrats are, numerically speaking, ten seats in the minority in the U.S. Senate.
You would think that that would rein the Donks in, wouldn't you? And it would, if Republicans had any concept of either ruthlessness or the necessity of exercising majority power.
Unfortunately, they have neither. Instead, they have backstabbing RINOs like John McCain, George Voinovich, and Chuck Hagel, and absolutely hapless boobs like Dick Lugar (whose constipated dignity will always be overwhelmed by Jim Geraghty's one-time observation that his name sounds like one you'd see in the credits of a porno flick) in leadership positions who are such easy marks that they never see these disasters coming.
And the backstabbing RINOs, as the second commenter observed, are simply the willing dupes of the minority party, which is running that chamber so effortlessly that Frist & Co., so obsessed with kumbayahism that they're walking on eggshells when they should be firing howitzers, aren't even dimly aware of it.
Oh, and did I mention that the nominee, Mr. Bolton, has spent these daily beatings pleading desperately that he is a convert to liberal foreign policy nostrums, up to and including kissing Kofi Annan's ass and taking his turn in the rotation as the UN Sec-Gen's palm-frond-waver? Has this self-abasement even slowed down the minority's smear barrage? And if any Committee Pachyderm had shown any inclination to conduct even the the most gentle-but-firm cross-examination of this "He looked at me cross-eyed fourteen years ago!" flying monkey brigade, might Mr. Bolton have felt a tad less bulldozed into making ideologically suicidal assurances that could only hamper him in his new job, assuming he still had a chance to be confirmed for it?
Now do you see why I'm laughing?
Just wait until Fristy gets his ass kicked on the filibuster-breaker vote (assuming he ever schedules it). I won't be able to straighten up then.
posted by JASmius at 10:16 PM
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