<TABLE class=post-subject cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=post-message cellSpacing=10 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width="1%"></TD><TD width="99%">http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/10/bolton.congress/...
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This is probably not what President Bush had in mind when he stressed bipartisanship after the Democratic Party's midterm elections sweep.
A key Senate Republican has joined Democrats in opposing one of Bush's initiatives for the lame-duck Congress: John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
With leaders from both parties promising a new bipartisan Washington, Bush began efforts to get two of his most controversial decisions approved before the Democrats take over. (Watch reason to hope for national unity -- 2:16 Video)
But Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated in this week's election, said he would block Bolton's nomination.
Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton's nomination would move forward without his support.
"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.
The committee, dominated 10-8 by Republicans, requires a majority vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor. A tie would be the same as a no vote.
Last year Democrats launched a heated debate about Bolton as they blocked a vote on his nomination.
They complained he gave the Senate false information when he failed to note on a questionnaire that he had been questioned by the department's inspector general as part of a joint inquiry by the State Department and CIA into allegations that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger in Africa.
The State Department acknowledged the error in Bolton's statement.
Also, Sen. George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, took to the floor and read a list of complaints by Bolton's subordinates who said he had a reputation of bullying his colleagues, taking facts out of context and exaggerating intelligence.
Carl Ford, the former chief of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, called Bolton "a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" and a "serial abuser" of subordinates.
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It's becoming the end of the rubberstamp era. Good for Lincoln Chafee on blocking Bolton, the Bush stamp.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This is probably not what President Bush had in mind when he stressed bipartisanship after the Democratic Party's midterm elections sweep.
A key Senate Republican has joined Democrats in opposing one of Bush's initiatives for the lame-duck Congress: John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
With leaders from both parties promising a new bipartisan Washington, Bush began efforts to get two of his most controversial decisions approved before the Democrats take over. (Watch reason to hope for national unity -- 2:16 Video)
But Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated in this week's election, said he would block Bolton's nomination.
Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton's nomination would move forward without his support.
"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.
The committee, dominated 10-8 by Republicans, requires a majority vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor. A tie would be the same as a no vote.
Last year Democrats launched a heated debate about Bolton as they blocked a vote on his nomination.
They complained he gave the Senate false information when he failed to note on a questionnaire that he had been questioned by the department's inspector general as part of a joint inquiry by the State Department and CIA into allegations that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger in Africa.
The State Department acknowledged the error in Bolton's statement.
Also, Sen. George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, took to the floor and read a list of complaints by Bolton's subordinates who said he had a reputation of bullying his colleagues, taking facts out of context and exaggerating intelligence.
Carl Ford, the former chief of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, called Bolton "a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" and a "serial abuser" of subordinates.
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It's becoming the end of the rubberstamp era. Good for Lincoln Chafee on blocking Bolton, the Bush stamp.
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