Borking Bolton

Rich Lowry makes some noteworthy points in his column, "The Bolton Dirtfest."

On Tuesday, Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd said of Bolton’s conduct in a routine bureaucratic dispute a few years ago, “This ought to be indictable.” How ridiculous. Can we make senatorial hyperbole a federal offense? Biden at one point asked for a private hearing to air the allegations in a letter from a woman who said Bolton was abusive of her. Biden said he didn’t want to harm Bolton’s reputation — but according to the New York Sun, Biden’s staff had already e-mailed the letter to journalists days earlier.

I wonder if Biden authored the e-mail. Do you think he personally wrote it or did the Senator known for his propensity to plagiarize "borrow" it?

The main charges against Bolton are de minimis. He is said to have intimidated a State Department intelligence analyst who objected to Bolton’s supposedly too-dire assessment of Cuba’s bioweapons program. But Bolton aide Fred Fleitz has testified that the analyst in question, Christian Westerman, wasn’t straight with Bolton or his staff. It was Westerman’s responsibility to run language for a 2002 Bolton Cuba speech by the CIA, but when he did so he attached his own prejudicial language dissenting from Bolton’s views. When Fleitz learned this, Westerman falsely denied having done it, understandably leading to a confrontation in Bolton’s office. Two of Westerman’s supervisors subsequently apologized for how Westerman handled the matter.

Democrats have made a scandal out of the fact that Bolton asked ten times in four years to get the names of Americans — routinely blacked out — captured on National Security Agency intercepts of foreign conversations. It is perfectly legitimate to make such requests. During the same four-year period, other State Department officials made roughly 400 similar requests.

This is what is so aggravating about this entire circus. The Dems are Borking Bolton. Their viciousness is disgraceful. They are shameless in their willingness to engage in this sliming.

Democrat, thy name is HYPOCRISY.

Finally, Democrats are retailing a charge from a partisan Democrat — founder of the Dallas chapter of Mothers Opposing Bush — that Bolton chased her through a Moscow hotel 11 years ago, throwing things and acting like a “madman.” Bolton was working for a company for which the woman, Melody Townsel, was a subcontractor. The head of the company, Jayant Kalotra, says he doesn’t believe it happened and that Bolton was always professional. Townsel’s boss at the subcontractor, Charlie Black, also says he didn’t hear of it at the time, even though Townsel was never shy about complaining.

It's to be expected that the morally bankrupt Dems would pounce on Townsel's allegations. What is unconscionable is how the spineless wing of the Republican membership on the committee is getting on board with these character assassins.

As the Bolton-nomination fight drags on, even more criticisms of him will surface from the State Department. Bolton vigorously supported Bush’s foreign policy at the incorrigibly weak-kneed department, earning him the enmity of its bureaucrats and their former servant Colin Powell, who appears to be feeding some of the anti-Bolton attacks. And the Democrats are willing to float any trash they are given — anything, anything to avoid discussing the substance of Bolton’s views.

Why are the Dems avoiding discussing matters of substance in the nomination of Bolton?

The answer is simple. He's more than qualified to be the U.S. Ambassador to the UN. If his experience is the focus, the Dems lose. Their only way to block Bush's nomination is to dwell on preposterous accusations and trumped up bizarre scenarios.

As I said yesterday, rather than whispering dirt about Bolton, Colin Powell should have the integrity to go on the record.

The charges against Bolton are gossipy accounts and groundless exaggerations--typical Democrat "evidence."

It's time for Republicans, like Voinovich, to be uncomfortable with the Dem smear machine rather than the trash it puts out.