Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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A Matter of Principle?

Rich Galen

Friday May 13, 2005

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The vote to send the nomination of John Bolton to the full Senate was 10-8 - party line. But the story is better than that. And worse than that.

Mr. Bolton has a reputation of being a tough guy to work for. As I said on Fox yesterday morning: "If being a thug to your staff is a disqualification for holding public office in this town, our parking problems are over."

There is a theory in Washington that in order to be the US Representative to the United Nations you have to be just the nicest darned person ever.

I have an alternate theory: I want the US Representative to the United Nations to be a prickly S.O.B. (and I don't mean Senate Office Building).

I want the US Representative to remind the Ambassadors from Upper Iguana and South Salamander that the people of the United States are footing the bill to the tune of about one out of every five dollars that it takes to run the UN. When their governments want to relieve the American people of some of that burden they can have a bigger say.

I want the US Representative to hold Kofi Annan's feet to the fire and make him tell us how it came to pass that billions of dollars in the Oil-for-Palaces program he was supposed to oversee were, instead, overlooked.

I want the US Representative to tell Paul Volcker to take a hike when he tries to deny the very same US Senate which is considering Mr. Bolton, the right to call one of his investigators as a witness at a hearing on UN operations.

The lead investigator - a US citizen and former FBI agent - in the Oil-for-Palaces scandal quit after Volcker issued an interim report because he felt it was a whitewash of the Secretary-General.

So, the President nominated Mr. John Bolton who, by the way, is already an Undersecretary of State so has already been confirmed by the Senate for a high-level job in the Administration. It's not like this guy just showed up and no one had any idea who he was.

But, Washington being was it is, the Democrats decided that John Bolton has exactly the wrong attitude. They want someone who be pals with the UN types and potentially ugly to the President, not loyal to the President and potentially ugly with the UN types.

At my advanced age I have learned I can disagree with someone without disliking that person. If their position is one which has been thought through and is held on principal then I will accept their position as legitimate - but wrong.

Which brings us to the case of Senator George Voinovitch, Republican of Ohio. Voinovich doesn't like Mr. Bolton. Says he is "the poster-child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be."

Voinovich decided Wednesday night that he would not support Bolton's nomination. Ok. If that's his well-thought-out position based on principal, we don't have to agree with him, or like it, but we have to accept it.

But Voinovich, like so many others in public life today, created a straddle: He said he would vote "Aye" on a motion to send Mr. Bolton's nomination to the floor without a recommendation. He also said he would oppose Mr. Bolton's nomination when it comes to a full Senate vote.

This is a tactic which is often used by Washington types. They vote for or against an amendment on some controversial bill and then vote the other way on the bill itself, thus being able to claim solidarity with both sides of the issue.

It came as no surprise that Senator Chuck "Will-This-Get-Me-on-a-Sunday-Talk-Show?" Hagel (R-Neb) scuttled down the same hidey-hole once it had been dug by Voinovich.

Mr. Bolton will likely be confirmed by the US Senate, but don't look for Senator Voinovich to be invited to any diplomatic receptions on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Washington Post's summary of the Senate committee's activities; an interesting Mullfoto; and the requisite Catchy Caption of the Day.

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