Via
TAPPED, this bit from the Congressional Quarterly:
BOLTON AT LITTLE BIGHORN?
Congressional Quarterly is reporting that Bill Frist may forge ahead with the John Bolton nomination tomorrow morning, before the fallout from the nuclear option. According to the report, Frist may seek a cloture vote to preempt a Democratic filibuster of Bolton -- the probable Democratic response, as the Bush administration still refuses to hand over relevant information on how Bolton handled certain classified intelligence and personnel matters.
Leaving aside George Voinovich's likely vote with the Democrats, I seriously doubt though that Frist has anywhere near the 60 votes needed. There are five Democrats (plus Jim Jeffords) in the Senate today that voted to confirm Bolton for undersecretary of state for arms control and international security in 2001: Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Russ Feingold, and Evan Bayh. This, coincidentally, is precisely the number of Democrats needed to break ranks for cloture to succeed. But unless all five decide to vote against Bolton, they will certainly not vote in unity this time around. Though Lieberman, Nelson, and Landrieu remain publicly uncommitted on Bolton, the other two aren't likely to waver. As a committed Bolton detractor on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Russ Feingold will not repeat his past mistake. And if Evan Bayh’s dissenting vote on Condoleezza Rice is any indicator, the Indiana senator is probably less inclined to vote for Bolton.
And that’s before you get to Jeffords and Voinovich. Even if you replaced Feingold with Mark Pryor (who is also publicly uncommitted), I just don’t see how Frist thinks he can muster the votes.
I’m not sure what CQ’s basis for the story is, but Frist has been under pressure by the White House to get the Bolton vote over with before the nuclear showdown. Maybe this is just Frist's way of telling the White House that Bolton’s a lost cause?
--Mark Leon Goldberg
Posted at 01:22 PM