WP: Senate Staff Interviews Show More Nuanced Image of Bolton

[Pirate Smile]

Senate Staff Interviews Show More Nuanced Image of Bolton

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 4, 2005; Page A04

The portrait of John R. Bolton that emerges from interviews conducted by Senate staffers is of a hard-charging official with strong opinions and little interest in accommodating views significantly different from his own -- who on occasion would freeze out or request transfers for officials who displeased him, according to a review of 10 transcripts obtained from officials involved in the investigation.

But while the investigation of Bolton's performance in President Bush's first term has turned up numerous examples of fierce policy disputes between the senior political appointee and lower-level career officials, no additional direct evidence of abusive behavior toward subordinates has emerged. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff is conducting dozens of interviews, seeking to discern a pattern in Bolton's behavior, as the panel prepares for a May 12 vote on Bolton's nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations.

Yesterday, the committee interviewed the former top legal adviser at the State Department, William H. Taft IV, and a department nonproliferation lawyer, Newell Highsmith, who clashed with Bolton over a lawsuit by an American company doing business with a Chinese company that had been sanctioned. Bolton did not want to deal with Highsmith during a pretrial conference call with a judge, but Highsmith ultimately remained on the case, committee aides said. Taft attributed the dispute to staff confusion.

Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, was frequently at the center of debates over how tough a line to take against North Korea's nuclear ambitions, illicit proliferation trade and other issues. The full transcripts shed light on the intense skirmishing within the State Department bureaucracy over policy issues in the first George W. Bush administration, and also present a more nuanced portrait of these disputes and Bolton's role in them. Not all of the interviews have been transcribed, with some only summarized in dueling staff memos by Democratic and Republican aides.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301393.html

[bemildred]

1. Ah, now he's a "nuanced" asshole. nt

[MO_Dem]

2. I wonder if this is the beginning of

the whitewashing of Bolton? Rove got to 'em, I guess.

[w4rma]

3. The GOP leadership *really* want to reward Bolon's loyalty.

They are trying everything they can to give this insane whacko power.

[saracat]

4. So he is really not THAT bad, at least not ALL the time!

Sheesh. The argument to confirm is made!

[ozymandius]

5. He smiles only sometimes, not always

after kneecapping, knifing or kicking his colleagues. What a charming dude!

[0007]

6. The John Bolton fans now see John as a subtle asshole,

not a complete asshole?

[drduffy]

7. neocons and bolton

Wasn't bolton also part of the original Project for the New American Century, or do I have mixed up?

[struggle4progress]

8. Bush desperately seeking confirmation for Bolton

AP , WASHINGTON
Wednesday, May 04, 2005,Page 7

<snip> While none has indicated plans to oppose Bolton, it would take only one Republican to side with the committee's eight Democrats to create a tie vote -- jeopardizing the nomination.

Republican officials familiar with the administration's efforts say the White House is concentrating much of its attention on Voinovich, believing he could be the most likely to oppose Bolton.

The Ohio senator temporarily blocked President Clinton's nomination of Richard Holbrooke to the United Nations in 1999 because, the senator says, he was told the nominee was "a kind of a nasty guy, arrogant."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/05/04/2003253117