Bolton's chances of winning UN role brighten

US Under-secretary of State John Bolton’s chances of winning Senate approval to be UN ambassador appeared to brighten as Republican fence-sitters drifted in his direction.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee scheduled a day-long session today culminating in a vote while Democrats flyspecked last-minute documents from the State Department to bolster their claims that Bolton was unfit for the diplomatic post.

The committee’s final action – to vote on whether to approve the nomination and send it to the full Senate for a confirmation vote – would amount to a dramatic test of US President George Bush’s ability to muster support for an embattled nominee and of the limits senators place on their own constitutional authority to “advise and consent” to his selection.

The Democrats’ chances rested on converting Republicans, who hold a 10-8 edge in the committee and a 55-45 majority in the Senate itself.

One of their targets, however, Senator Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, said on Tuesday that he would reluctantly vote for Bolton. Two other Republican fence-sitters, Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, said they too were inclined to vote for him.

A fourth Republican, George Voinovich of Ohio, playing it close to the chest, declined to tip his vote in advance.

An energetic diplomat who pioneered a programme to curb the spread of dangerous weapons technology, Bolton has strong ties to political conservatives inside and outside the administration and shares their scepticism about some international treaties.

The spirited debate over the last month, however, has focused mostly on allegations that he berated several US officials, especially intelligence analysts who did not agree with his assessments of Cuba and Syria’s military strength.

Dozens of retired American diplomats signed a letter sent to the committee chairman, Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, opposing Senate confirmation. Dozens of others endorsed Bolton for the UN post in competing letters to Lugar.

Bush, trying to turn the personality issue to Bolton’s favour, has called Bolton “a blunt guy” who “can get the job done at the United Nations” and “who isn’t afraid to speak his mind in the post of the ambassador to the UN”.

Vice President Dick Cheney, outspoken himself, said: “If being occasionally tough and aggressive and abrasive were a problem, a lot of members of the US Senate wouldn’t qualify.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice endorsed Bolton as the right choice to help bring about reform in the United Nations.

By contrast, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, noting Bolton’s public criticism of the United Nations over the years, said she wondered why someone who disliked the world organisation so much wanted to take on a job there.

At the opening of hearings on April 11, Bolton pledged to help strengthen the United Nations if confirmed. He called it an institution that had occasionally “gone off track”.

A 56-year-old lawyer, Bolton was senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute before he became Bush’s under-secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs four years ago.

He had been assistant secretary of state for international organisations under President George Bush senior, playing a leading role in organising support for the US-led coalition in the 1991 war against Iraq.

He also helped nullify a UN resolution that equated Zionism, the philosophical underpinning for Israel, with racism.

In his current post, his hard-line stands against North Korea and Iran and outspoken pronouncements did not always sit well with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was more moderate in his views.

Powell’s one-time chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, told the committee staff last week that Bolton was ordered to clear his speeches in advance with Powell’s office or that of Powell’s deputy, Richard Armitage.

“When people ignore diplomacy ... in order to push their pet rocks in other areas, it bothers me,” Wilkerson said.