Bolton Beats The Hollow Men
“It is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”
- Shakespeare's MacBeth
"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
- The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot
~ ~ ~
After months of trumped-up "controversy," snarling partisan malice, relentless ideologically-inspired malevolence, and the manufacture from molehills of enough mountains to inspire another national brewery, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved "without recommendation" the nomination of John Bolton as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations on a party line 10-8 vote.
I've been saying that I would only believe this result when I saw it, so I must now perforce believe it. And God knows I'm not disappointed. But it just seems like such an anti-climax. All those hysterically dishonest accusers who couldn't even make up anything more horrifying than that Mr. Bolton tends not to suffer fools gladly and doesn't like to be BS'd; all the "accusations" that he {GASP} wouldn't automatically accept every scrap if intelligence at face value, which I guess hurt some lefty apparatchik or other in the sprawling bureaucratic entrails of the State/CIA collective; and all, apparently, ultimately motivated, to the degree that it can be distilled down to one item, by Mr. Bolton's not being a fan of Fidel Castro, which in the sprawling entrails of the State/CIA collective is an unforgiveable sin.
And yet, for all of that, for all the blatant foot-dragging by the minority Members, for all their conniving and cajoling of FRC RINOs like Linc Chafee, Chuck Hagel, and the day's man of perfidy, George Voinovich, Mr. Bolton received the same party-line approval that he could easily have gotten two or three months ago.
I guess I wouldn't mind if it was only their own time that the Democrats were wasting on this pointlessness.
As for Senator Voinovich's "I like John Bolton, he's a fine man, but he's a jerk" soliloquy, what does it matter what he said since he voted with the majority? Sounded to me like a lame attempt at face-saving more than anything else, since it was Voinovich's heedless indolence that delayed this vote for three weeks without the Dems being able, as it turned out, to dredge up any actual dirt on Bolton or wheedle a single RINO to desert. Being unable to make a troublemaking difference as an accessory, and unwilling to be the instrument, he took the mercenary way out, splitting his rhetoric from the vote that actually mattered.
Voinovich says he'll vote against Bolton in the full senate, but he's only doing so because he knows Bolton has the votes to pass. Either that, or the Dems will launch another filibuster, assuming they have the votes, which, if they do, would explain why the junior senator from Ohio voted the way he did.
If Harry Reid has the votes, he'll do it. But I doubt George Voinovich will be among them. That would require him to take a stand in addition to all that insufferably self-righteous strutting. And when it comes to expending political capital, the Ohioan is apparently tighter than a bull's ass in fly season.
Pity his mouth can't be closed nearly as tightly.
[HT: B4B]
UPDATE/BUMP to 5/13: Barbie Boxer has placed an unspecified "hold" on the Bolton nomination, right on schedule [HT #2 to B4B]. Even the news report admits that her spokeswoman, Natalie Ravitz, failed to indicate how the process could be delayed.
My guess? The Dems are trying to buy more time to gin up the votes to sustain a filibuster. Though if they were more diabolical than I give them credit for, the price Boxer could charge for lifting her hold (assuming there's anything behind it) would be Bill Frist's capitulation to Harry Reid on the filibuster showdown. Make our side choose between the President's appellate court nominees (and future SCOTUS nominees) and his ambassador-designate to the UN.
This just redundantly illustrates for me why no Republican should be wasting any time or skullsweat on trying to compromise with these people. No such compromise is possible because the Democrats aren't interested in compromise. This is total political war, and we'll keep getting our heads handed to us until we finally accept reality and start fighting back.
The proximity of the transportation bill could be put to good use. Perhaps California's slice of the hamsteaks and bacon can be zeroed out in committee to "put a hold" on the Boxer rebellion.
Well, a man can dream, can't he?
- Shakespeare's MacBeth
"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
- The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot
~ ~ ~
After months of trumped-up "controversy," snarling partisan malice, relentless ideologically-inspired malevolence, and the manufacture from molehills of enough mountains to inspire another national brewery, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved "without recommendation" the nomination of John Bolton as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations on a party line 10-8 vote.
I've been saying that I would only believe this result when I saw it, so I must now perforce believe it. And God knows I'm not disappointed. But it just seems like such an anti-climax. All those hysterically dishonest accusers who couldn't even make up anything more horrifying than that Mr. Bolton tends not to suffer fools gladly and doesn't like to be BS'd; all the "accusations" that he {GASP} wouldn't automatically accept every scrap if intelligence at face value, which I guess hurt some lefty apparatchik or other in the sprawling bureaucratic entrails of the State/CIA collective; and all, apparently, ultimately motivated, to the degree that it can be distilled down to one item, by Mr. Bolton's not being a fan of Fidel Castro, which in the sprawling entrails of the State/CIA collective is an unforgiveable sin.
And yet, for all of that, for all the blatant foot-dragging by the minority Members, for all their conniving and cajoling of FRC RINOs like Linc Chafee, Chuck Hagel, and the day's man of perfidy, George Voinovich, Mr. Bolton received the same party-line approval that he could easily have gotten two or three months ago.
I guess I wouldn't mind if it was only their own time that the Democrats were wasting on this pointlessness.
As for Senator Voinovich's "I like John Bolton, he's a fine man, but he's a jerk" soliloquy, what does it matter what he said since he voted with the majority? Sounded to me like a lame attempt at face-saving more than anything else, since it was Voinovich's heedless indolence that delayed this vote for three weeks without the Dems being able, as it turned out, to dredge up any actual dirt on Bolton or wheedle a single RINO to desert. Being unable to make a troublemaking difference as an accessory, and unwilling to be the instrument, he took the mercenary way out, splitting his rhetoric from the vote that actually mattered.
Voinovich says he'll vote against Bolton in the full senate, but he's only doing so because he knows Bolton has the votes to pass. Either that, or the Dems will launch another filibuster, assuming they have the votes, which, if they do, would explain why the junior senator from Ohio voted the way he did.
If Harry Reid has the votes, he'll do it. But I doubt George Voinovich will be among them. That would require him to take a stand in addition to all that insufferably self-righteous strutting. And when it comes to expending political capital, the Ohioan is apparently tighter than a bull's ass in fly season.
Pity his mouth can't be closed nearly as tightly.
[HT: B4B]
UPDATE/BUMP to 5/13: Barbie Boxer has placed an unspecified "hold" on the Bolton nomination, right on schedule [HT #2 to B4B]. Even the news report admits that her spokeswoman, Natalie Ravitz, failed to indicate how the process could be delayed.
My guess? The Dems are trying to buy more time to gin up the votes to sustain a filibuster. Though if they were more diabolical than I give them credit for, the price Boxer could charge for lifting her hold (assuming there's anything behind it) would be Bill Frist's capitulation to Harry Reid on the filibuster showdown. Make our side choose between the President's appellate court nominees (and future SCOTUS nominees) and his ambassador-designate to the UN.
This just redundantly illustrates for me why no Republican should be wasting any time or skullsweat on trying to compromise with these people. No such compromise is possible because the Democrats aren't interested in compromise. This is total political war, and we'll keep getting our heads handed to us until we finally accept reality and start fighting back.
The proximity of the transportation bill could be put to good use. Perhaps California's slice of the hamsteaks and bacon can be zeroed out in committee to "put a hold" on the Boxer rebellion.
Well, a man can dream, can't he?
posted by JASmius at 9:07 AM
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