Bolton will be hit hard in the final stretch of his primary battle

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON—The Republican Senator who Thursday delayed and likely sunk the confirmation of ambassador John Bolton will be hit hard in the final stretch of his primary battle this weekend.
In an interview Friday, the mayor of Cranston, Stephen Laffey said his opponent in the Rhode Island GOP Senate primary, Lincoln Chafee, was too indecisive to hold on to his seat. “If you ask someone about John Bolton, whether they are unaffiliated or Republican, they can not come up with a reason why he should not be the U.N. Ambassador. My opinion is that democratic senators did not like him because George W. Bush liked him. They don’t have a real reason though. But for me, it’s not about John Bolton per se. The issue is that in this state Rhode Islanders open the front page of the newspaper and see a U.S. Senator who does not know what to do, standing on the sidelines.”
Mr. Chafee in some ways is the Republican analogue of Joe Lieberman. He often bucks his party on key votes, such as the confirmation of Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito. Mr. Chafee even declined to endorse President Bush in 2004. But on the heated nomination fight over John Bolton, the Rhode Island Senator has been maddening for the White House. When Mr. Bolton’s name was forwarded to the Senate in 2005, Mr. Chafee did not endorse him and at the very last minute only allowed his nomination to clear the Senate Foreign Relations Committee without recommendation.
This time around, his decision to postpone a vote on Mr. Bolton came as a surprise to the White House, who thought Mr. Chafee had followed the lead of Senator Voinovich, an Ohio Republican who initially opposed the Bolton nomination but changed his mind last month based on his performance at Turtle Bay.
In lieu of voting for Mr. Bolton, Mr. Chafee sent a series of questions to Secretary of State Rice that questioned the pro-Israel bent of American foreign policy. On Friday, State Department spokesman, Shaun McCormack, said Ms. Rice would get back to Mr. Chafee by phone or by letter. “She absolutely thinks that he is the right man for the job. She fully supports this nomination and she thinks that John is doing an extraordinary job up there in New York,” Mr. McCormack said.
But Mr. Chafee’s hold could spell doom for Mr. Bolton’s ambassadorship. To start, Mr. Chafee is running for re-election in a very liberal state. Already, organizations that favor the United Nations have begun campaigning against Mr. Bolton in Rhode Island. While a vote for Mr. Bolton would likely assuage Republican primary voters in Rhode Island, the Senator has nothing to gain politically from a Bolton vote after the Tuesday primary.
If the Senate does not confirm the Bolton nomination by the close of the session, the president could still appoint him again to be his ambassador in Turtle Bay. But Mr. Bolton would also have to accept the job without compensation in the form of a salary, or even travel expenses.
Meanwhile, Mr. Laffey is hoping that Mr. Chafee’s wavering ways and soft stance on Israel will cost him his Senate seat. “We made the issue on Israel a big issue in this campaign,” he said. “Chafee is one of four U.S. Senators who does not vote for sanctions on Syria. He does not sign the letter to the European Union asking to place Hezbollah on the terrorism list.”
Mr. Laffey added, “Yeah, I read his letter to Secretary of State Rice. I don’t think he understands that John Bolton is an ambassador and does not make the policies he doesn’t like. I actually think he does not understand that. I read the letter. People of Rhode Island are stupefied by that letter.”
Mr. Chafee’s hold on the Bolton nomination has also worried some GOP insiders in Washington. “John Bolton has been among the greatest ambassadors to the united nations that this country has had,” the president of the foundation for the defense of democracies, Clifford May said. “It is extraordinarily disappointing that Lincoln Chafee fails to understand and this and it raises very serious questions about his judgment.”


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