Bolton Battle Reveals Extreme Polarization

[housewolf]

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And as he has many times before, Bush won the legislative fight by the narrowest of margins ....

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"This is their style of governing," said Marshall Wittmann, a former aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), now serving as a fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council. "You build upon the base and pressure the middle and you ignore the other side. You push across the finish line and you move on. In their mind a win is a win, regardless of how narrow or polarizing it is."

So far, this hardheaded approach has allowed Bush to move more of his agenda into law than appeared possible for a president twice elected with narrow majorities. But it has also bitterly divided the country over his presidency and so alienated congressional Democrats that Bush often needs virtually lock-step Republican support to pass his key priorities.

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The committee vote on Bolton provided a textbook case of the gambles that Bush takes in devising his agenda — and the forces that have allowed him, more often than not, to collect on those bets.

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At various points through the confirmation process, fully half of the 10 Republicans on the committee expressed doubts about Bolton's fitness for the job.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-051205assess_lat,0,4241813.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Inland]

1. Those for diplomacy vs those for kissing Bush's ass.

That's the huge polarizing divide in the Senate.

[KoKo]

2. This last paragraph in the article doesn't give much hope for Democrats..

But today's committee vote to advance Bolton underscores the powerful impulse among most congressional Republicans to side with the president even when he pushes ideas beyond their ideological comfort zone. More than anything, the refusal by committee Republicans to sink Bolton — even after expressing so much skepticism about him — should send a cautionary signal to Democrats counting on GOP defections to derail the filibuster ban and other White House priorities.

The vote, said one senior Republican Senate aide, showed that GOP moderates "are willing to bend things, but not break them. Overall, it's a good sign for the majority and the administration, even as unpleasant as it was today."

I was prepared to dislike this article, but it focuses more on strategy than I thought it would, and seemed fair. The conclusions the writer makes are worrysome in that so many of us had hoped the Repugs would break away in the full Senate vote. If Bolton is confirmed it will signal the Repugs to hold together on the judges and SS Reform/Decimation and that's why Bolton must be defeated. Lets hope more damaging info comes out about Bolton next week and that the Dems do fillibuster for more time. If they give this away we are sunk.

[housewolf]

3. I don't think this will come up until sometime in June

The senate has got to finish the Highway Bill, then Frist maybe the judges - seems like Frist and Reid both want to deal with that. Then I think the senate takes a recess until after Memorial Day. In the meantime, Barbara Boxer put a "hold" on the Bolton nomination. The Dems are working hard to get that info from the State Dept that they are withholding.

So there's more time to keep pressuring senators and hopefully more information will come out. I've heard rumors that there are 3 Dem senators that need to be pressured to keep in line, too, along with some repubs.