John Bolton Watch: Senator Schumer – Democrat Filibuster Unlikely
The UN Security Council has expressed “extreme shock and distress” at an Israeli air strike that killed 52 people, mostly children, and called for an end to the violence. US ambassador John Bolton, seen here, led opposition to any stronger wording in the Security Council statement during another tough day of negotiations over Lebanon.
New York Sun: Schumer Says Bolton Won’t Face Filibuster
A Democratic filibuster of John Bolton’s nomination as United Nations ambassador is “unlikely,” Senator Schumer said yesterday.
Mr. Schumer supported an effort last year to block Mr. Bolton’s nomination from gaining a full Senate vote, but he confirmed that he is considering changing his position.
New York’s senior senator said he was weighing Mr. Bolton’s backing of Israel against his unwillingness to work with other countries at the United Nations. “There’s a good part of Bolton. He’s been a staunch and very good defender of Israel,” Mr. Schumer said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “There’s a bad part of Bolton. He seems to have a ‘go it alone’ attitude at a time when we need the nations of the world on our side. We’ve seen that in Iran and North Korea.”
John Bolton has been a good United Nations ambassador. It is doubtful that the Democrats will be able to sustain a filibuster in any case during an election year. The Dems simply do not wish to appear to be obstructionists – especially for a friend of Israel.
So, what is Schumer doing?
Why floating a “TRIAL BALOON.”
Flap handicaps John Bolton WILL be confirmed in September when the Senate reconvenes.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua news agency, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, right, confers with Israeli counterpart Dan Gillerman during a break in an emergency session of the Security Council Sunday, July 30, 2006 at the United Nations headquarters. The session was called after an Israeli airstrike Sunday killed at least 50 people in a southern Lebanese village.
Captain Ed has No Bolton Filibuster: Schumer
I’m happy that Schumer has decided to stop playing partisan politics with foreign-policy positions, which clearly fall into the purview of the White House and have tenure limited to that of the president’s term. Hopefully, his caucus will follow his lead and quit acting like petulant children. However, it would also be nice if they could finally make up their mind about whether multilateralism is a virtue or a vice and get their stories straight forthwith.
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john Carey
John Bolton: The Man America Needs At the UN
By John E. Carey
July 28, 2006
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/
John Bolton is exactly the face of the United States we, as a nation, want and deserve at the United Nations during these difficult times.
In the midst of the “global war on terror†which includes the hot spots of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, along with the most difficult diplomatic projects of Iran and North Korea, the United States requires a diplomat with vision who is at the top of his game at the U.N.
Bolton is tough, sincere, hard working, principled, and dedicated. He follows the orders of his president and Secretary of State Rice, with whom he shares his firm belief that the U.N. needs to be cleared of corruption and reformed before it can function effectively and with the respect of the world community.
Moreover, Bolton can spot the mind games and chicanery that often gets pushed to the light of day by those with hidden agendas. He knows how to gently twist arms and “educate†his colleagues who are “getting off the reservation.â€
While much of the diplomatic work at the UN remains shrouded in secrecy, we are already seeing and hearing of John Bolton’s positive influence.
Bolton is the man we need at the U.N. now.
After North Korea staged its 4th of July missile extravaganza, Bolton remained cool and orchestrated the U.S. reply. Working with China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan; Bolton crafted the best possible outcome by bridging the gap between the Japanese who favored sanctions and the Chinese who would have, left to their own first impressions, remained silent completely.
Michael Green, who until recently served as the senior Asia expert on the National Security Council, said he believes Bolton’s hard work in bringing all interested parties to agreement before the crisis is paying off now.
“It’s important to look at the quiet diplomatic work the administration did as North Korea prepared to launch these missiles,” Green said. “The administration is now well-positioned to go back to these countries and say, ‘North Korea defied you, and we should have a common position.’ ”
After the entire Security Council agreed to a unanimous communiqué, Bolton said he looks forward “to North Korea’s full, unconditional and immediate compliance with this Security Council resolution.”
“It sends an unequivocal, unambiguous and unanimous message to Pyongyang: suspend your ballistic missile program; stop your procurement of materials related to weapons of mass destruction, and implement your September, 2005 commitment to verifiably dismantle your nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs,” he told the council.
Said CBS Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, “The unanimous vote at the Security Council on North Korea certainly sends a message to Iran that the world powers can work together and that the United Nations can be effective in sending a united message.”
Falk, who doesn’t miss much, also said, “and in a sign that the U.S. wishes to work with China, Ambassador Bolton wore a tie of the Beijing Olympics to the vote.”
Bolton also stands four-square for U.N. reforms, including the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse; stricter rules for peacekeepers (following accusations that blue-helmeted U.N. troops had raped and abused Africans they were supposed to protect); better planning, contracting and accountability for the U.N. building modernizations project; complete openness and accountability for the culprits in the “Oil for Food†scandal; and new rules for dealing with international government corruption.
John Bolton spearheaded the U.S. effort to eliminate the notoriously corrupt U.N. Human Rights Commission with a new Human Rights Council. This ended years of corrupt influence exerted by former Commission mainstays of human rights like Sudan and Libya.
Bolton also took the lead in the U.S.’s effort to forge the Convention Against Corruption at the U.N.
The Convention contributes to the objectives of the “Long War” by starting processes to prevent and deal with international corruption: a force that allowed dictators like Saddam Hussein to feather their nests with US and UN money while they defied international regulations and promoted a decidedly anti-US agenda, including support for Islamic extremists.
Despite critics’ assertions that the Bush Administration avoids close cooperation with the UN and only pays lip service to allied coalitions and other accepted parts of the international diplomatic community, the Convention Against Corruption and the insistence of the United States that the UN deal with its own scandals proves otherwise.
The day after the Convention Against Corruption went into effect, US ambassador to the UN John Bolton told assembled representatives of the UN: “With regard to corruption, the United States has and will continue to take a policy of zero tolerance. As President Bush has noted, the stakes are very high. In his own words, the President noted how corruption ‘hinders sustainable development, erodes confidence in democratic institutions, and facilitates transnational crime and terrorism.'”
We support John Bolton’s continued tenure at the UN as America’s spokesman for peace, freedom, human rights, efficiency, justice and an end to corruption.
John E. Carey is former president of International Defense Consultants, Inc. and a frequent contributor to The Washington Times.
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/