Is Rice trying to get rid of Bolton by kicking him upstairs?

[BurtWorm]

He seems to be good for nothing but trying to get people fired. :wtf:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61304-2005Apr17?language=printer

Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.

Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.

Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.

Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.

[MADem]

1. That would make a great theme for a SNL skit

Have some crazy player with a Cap'n Kangaroo moustache, chasing people down halls, screaming like a madman, pounding on doors...Condi, cowering in a closet, scheming on how to get him out of her hair....definite possibilities!

[DinahMoeHum]

2. I don't know about upstairs, but methinks she's trying to get him

away from any real authority at State. Or at least get him under HER thumb.

Link:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2117028/

(snip)
...Almost nobody around President Bush likes Bolton. That "almost" is a big qualifier. The guy who does like Bolton is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney put him up for this job, and what Cheney wants usually goes. But Cheney wanted Bolton to have a bigger job, deputy secretary of state.

And the person who blocked that promotion was Condoleezza Rice, who was about to be confirmed as secretary of state and didn't want her No. 2 to be someone who'd report behind her back to Cheney. Rice has publicly supported Bolton, but with some body language that can be read as a caveat. Usually, nominees for U.N. ambassador are introduced to the press by the president. Bolton was introduced by Rice. It was as if she were saying, "This guy will be under my thumb." Some insiders said to themselves that day, "Good luck."

One of the charges that has since come out is that, during Bush's first term, when Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control (a position he still holds), he held on to documents about Iran that were meant to be passed up to Colin Powell and Richard Armitage, then the secretary and deputy secretary of state. It has been reported that, as a result, Rice now keeps Bolton out of the loop. It's a reasonable inference that she—and many other officials at Foggy Bottom—would be relieved if Bolton's nomination were somehow withdrawn.
(snip)


:evilfrown:

[BurtWorm]

3. Very interesting.

Dick Cheney is garbage. Filthy garbage!

[BurtWorm]

5. This town ain't big enough for the both of them!

:popcorn:


http://slate.msn.com/id/2117028

It's a good guess that one of two things is going to happen in the coming days and weeks: Either Bolton goes down—or we start learning a lot of unpleasant things about Sen. George Voinovich.

[rkc3]

6. Maybe Rice and Bolton will have to shoot it out.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Condi needs Bolton at the UN

To make her appear sane.

[progmom]

7. i thought that was generally acknowledged

but now, for the life of me, i can't remember where i read that.

[BurtWorm]

8. It was just on Slate.

I first heard about it today. I didn't really get up to speed on the Bolton thing until I watched the hearing yesterday. Now I can't WAIT to watch it go up in flames. Even if by some stroke of mass idiocy he gets confirmed, you know he's a trainwreck waiting to happen.

:popcorn:

[AlCzervik]

9. i read somewhere that Bush wanted him to be asst. Secretary of State

but Lugar told him he past the smell test.