Second Time's a Charm?
BARNES, FRED
Second Time's a Charm? George Voinovich's change of heart gives U.N. ambassador John Bolton another shot at confirmation By Fred Barnes It was a warm weekend day in mid-July when, Republican...
...One participant told me he wished Bolton could be prime minister of Israel...
...He voted to confirm him last year...
...His answer is he's found "very little" that he didn't expect...
...John knows where the bodies are buried...
...Kerry asked why the administration didn't get into one-on-one talks with the North Koreans rather than limit itself to six-party negotiations...
...And it was important to have someone with an institutional memory...
...But his explanation that the U.N...
...As a result, the committee's vote was postponed...
...can be "useful" at times, and "you have to use [it] when it's appropriate...
...Fein-gold repeated the question...
...Neither the pro-Israel groups nor anyone else appears to have any clout with Republican senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who's a bit of an oddball...
...He had no fences to mend with Bush...
...His campaign for reform has made little headway...
...Nor had he been a freelancer, promoting his own foreign policy ideas rather than the Bush administration's...
...Human Rights Council stacked with rights-violating countries (Cuba, China, Algeria, Pakistan) came to naught...
...could say that...
...And it didn't work...
...Bolton also "finagled" the Lebanon cease-fire resolution "to the point the Israelis could live with it," according to Voinovich...
...He has a deep interest in U.N...
...With Chafee's bizarre (but perhaps temporary) defection, Bolton's nomination is again in trouble...
...On the other hand, Republican senators are naturally inclined to support a Bush nominee...
...That offended some people at the U.N.," Coleman says...
...Chafee's problem is not with Bolton...
...The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was ready to approve Bolton's nomination last week along party lines...
...was created in 1945, the United States has had 29 ambassadors...
...At the July 27 hearing, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin asked if he thinks "the United States should pay its obligations to the U.N...
...Mandate reform was voted down by a lopsided margin in the General Assembly...
...Warren Hoge of the New York Times had reported in July that "more than 30" ambassadors friendly to the United States "expressed misgivings over Mr...
...His confirmation, Voinovich said, "will tell the world that we're not dedicated to repairing our relationships or working as a team, but that we believe only someone with sharp elbows can deal properly with the international community...
...They give Bolton credit— well-deserved credit—for engineering the 1991 repeal of the U.N...
...Does he faithfully reflect administration policy...
...Few...
...Why not engage in a bilateral one and get the job [of curbing North Korea's nuclear program] done...
...At the last minute, Chafee decided to vote no, which would have created a tie and kept the nomination from going to the Senate floor...
...He was impressed that Bolton collaborated amicably on resolutions on North Korea, Iran, Lebanon, and Sudan...
...Bolton tells a different story...
...Let's face it," Voinovich says, "I think John has really exercised some self-discipline...
...When Bolton was summoned to a foreign relations committee hearing on July 27, Dodd seemed to think he had caught Bolton red-handed in a lie...
...But he's skeptical about "running your entire foreign policy through it...
...With Dodd, it's personal and ideological...
...I did not want them sent and they were not sent," he told Dodd...
...After four years as Bush's national security adviser, she had wanted to move up...
...And if he's good enough for Voinovich, he should be good enough for the Senate and the U.N...
...Kerry said...
...Democratic opposition is partisan and knee jerk—except in Dodd's case...
...Bolton has near-unanimous support among Republicans...
...And I would say, Senator, that we do have the opportunity for bilateral negotiations with North Korea in the context of the six-party talks, if North Korea would come back to them...
...By itself, it meant that confirmation was now likely, though not certain given the level of Democratic opposition and the vagaries of Senate politics...
...He's pulled back...
...Is he effective...
...In reply, Bolton said the letters "were never sent" because he didn't want the officer removed...
...For nearly two decades, he's loathed Bolton's conservative influence on policy toward Latin America and Cuba...
...Last month, I went with Bolton when he spoke to a gathering at the New York office of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations...
...world...
...ambassadors— Moynihan and Kirkpatrick—did exactly that...
...Coleman and Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Voinovich on the trip to the U.N...
...That's what the Clinton administration did...
...There's another measure of Bolton's success, the rigorous but fair Voinovich test...
...Bolton's staff had drafted letters to the CIA seeking the officer's "removal...
...The best U.S...
...Even the polite new Bolton doesn't mind skirmishing with Democrats...
...When Bush hosted senators for a lunch at the White House a few days after the Bolton nomination was defeated, the president went out of his way to grab Voinovich around the shoulders and hug him...
...He says he waited in the back of the room until his time came to speak...
...War had just broken out between Israel and Hezbollah, he noted—all the more reason to have a U.N...
...But his own investigation led him to believe that, at worst, this episode was an exception to Bolton's otherwise respectful behavior...
...But that just made it harder for him to do what he was doing as he walked with his wife: change his mind...
...Bolton's effort to kill a new U.N...
...It wasn't part of the staid, diplomatic way things are supposed to go," Bolton says...
...He'd been a popular mayor of Cleveland for 10 years and Ohio governor for 8 more...
...You've got to be willing to represent American interests and not be apologetic about it," he says...
...It's a place where American interests can be advanced, but it's certainly a place where you have to defend against encroachments on American interests...
...Bolton's effectiveness is harder to judge...
...Bolton's answer: "Very poorly, since the North Koreans violated the agreed framework almost from the time it was signed...
...Even the mild reforms proposed by U.N...
...It shouldn't be...
...He's been extremely diplomatic when we haven't been successful on something...
...That is the nature of multilateral negotiations, Voinovich suggested...
...Voinovich then called Jeannie Siskovic, his foreign policy staffer back in Washington...
...Voinovich asked his wife what she thought, as he often Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard...
...does...
...He was back in Cleveland, his hometown, taking a walk with his wife Janet in the neighborhood where they'd lived for 40 years...
...He's doing a terrific job," Rice told me last week...
...officials, and chats with senators and Bush advisers—after all that, Voinovich concluded Bolton belongs at the U.N...
...Security Council in February was critical...
...When they met after she was named secretary of state, Bolton said he wanted a new position—he'd been assistant secretary for arms control and nonproliferation in Bush's first term—preferably deputy secretary...
...He accepted immediately...
...For certain, he would win little media approval by now backing Bolton's confirmation...
...Voinovich says he was "concerned" by the Times article...
...And instead of promoting reform, which Bolton has long advocated, Voinovich said he was concerned Bolton "would make it more difficult for us to achieve the badly needed reforms to this outdated institution...
...Every other ambassador does that...
...I think he's doing a good job in a tough place...
...resolutions to their specifications, not his...
...He was handpicked by Rice...
...Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts showed up late for the hearing and, perhaps to his regret, got into an argument with Bolton...
...ambassador stay in his post for the "long haul...
...I think he knew I don't take cheap shots...
...Voinovich had been the catalyst for the defeat of Bolton's nomination to the U.N...
...True, he had been lionized by the press as a man of impressive independence and courage for his role in blocking Bolton...
...As it was, President Bush had been forced to give Bolton a recess appointment (it runs out next January...
...One undecided senator, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, called Bolton last week, chatted for 20 minutes, and promised his vote...
...Bolton responded that it's "unequivocally the position of the administration to pay our assessed contributions...
...that his foes had predicted...
...Rather, his complaint, expressed in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is that the administration's Middle East policy is too pro-Israel...
...And Bolton tried but failed to get detailed language about what the Iranians are required to do in the Iran resolution, nor could he talk other Security Council members into labeling Iran "a threat to international peace and security...
...Bolton believes the U.N...
...Rove had talked to Voinovich repeatedly about Bolton and believed he'd made no progress toward changing the senator's mind...
...My observations are that while Bolton is not perfect, he has demonstrated his ability, especially in recent months, to work with others and follow the president's lead by working multilaterally," the senator wrote...
...Voinovich sought to evaluate Bolton on three points...
...ambassador John Bolton another shot at confirmation By Fred Barnes It was a warm weekend day in mid-July when, Republican senator George Voinovich of Ohio says, "it came to me...
...Rice understood...
...He's "dedicated to advancing the U.S...
...It didn't bother Voinovich...
...Otherwise, he was ready to leave government...
...Over the past year, Bolton has won the strong backing of Jewish and pro-Israel groups, or, to be precise, stronger backing...
...How does Bolton compare...
...Bolton, it turned out, didn't deserve his unflattering caricature...
...Nor is his recantation...
...I was genuinely touched," the senator told me...
...You know, I feel exactly the same way," she told Voinovich...
...There are some people who don't like what he says...
...simply lacks a majority in favor of reform is entirely accurate...
...Before announcing his opposition to Bolton in May 2005, he interviewed Bolton twice and "dozens" of people who had worked with him...
...Now, at 70, he's as safe in his Senate seat as any Republican in Congress...
...reform and lectured Third World ambassadors...
...He didn't appear to be joking...
...I've watched his performance...
...Is he careful not to alienate other ambassadors...
...post in 2005...
...The committee subsequently found documentary evidence to the contrary," Dodd said...
...The way he handled it, with Japan coming up with the tough resolution," was masterful...
...Voinovich is different...
...Without his unflinching opposition, Bolton most likely would have been confirmed...
...ambassadors to the U.N...
...He's tough but I want someone who's tough when we're negotiating...
...reform and public diplomacy...
...This is not a thing about George Voinovich trying to promote George Voinovich...
...The White House made no attempt to punish Voinovich, who has admired Bush since their years as governors...
...And never has a politician worked so hard to prove himself wrong...
...How many U.S...
...All right, thanks," Dodd said, then changed the subject...
...But he's reflecting administration policy...
...Watching Bolton perform ably when his term came up as president of the U.N...
...Rice contacted Bolton a few days later with the offer of U.N...
...They were aghast when he was nominated...
...Voinovich had had no political reason for opposing Bolton, no need for a political boost...
...Bolton is an admirer of former ambassadors Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick...
...resolution declaring Zionism to be racism...
...in February, dozens of talks and meetings with Bolton since his recess appointment as ambassador in August 2005, interviews of all Bolton's top aides, conversations with 27 ambassadors from other countries and U.N...
...Nobody ever thought we'd get anything on North Korea," he says...
...It made the renomination of Bolton viable...
...Nor did the criticisms of Bolton he heard...
...Voinovich had told few in Washington of his change of heart...
...But it sounds like George Bush to me...
...We need him...
...He managed, however, to discredit the council, which has cited only one country by name for violating human rights—Israel...
...So the piece was a major surprise— to Karl Rove, the White House political chief, for example...
...The pro-Israel groups have pressed Democratic senators in particular not to block Bolton's confirmation...
...And despite disagreements with Rice on Lebanon and with Undersecretary of State Nick Burns on Iran, he sought to shape U.N...
...Another Democratic tack is to press Bolton on whether he's changed his unenthusiastic view of the U.N...
...He called for a serious discussion of limiting the mandates (or assigned tasks) of the U.N...
...He's the honest broker in the Bolton fight...
...A few days later, an article by Voinovich appeared on the op-ed page of the Washington Post under the headline "Why I'll Vote for Bolton...
...His fears about Bolton had not been realized...
...So often in life, when you do what I did, you hope the guy turns out to be what I said he was," Voinovich says...
...He knows the commitments people have made...
...Voinovich's switch had the same impact as his original opposition, only in reverse...
...They expect Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, one of Bolton's harshest critics, to vote no on Bolton but to decline to join the filibuster that Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut is eager to organize...
...At an earlier hearing, Bolton had denied seeking the ouster of an intelligence officer whose viewpoint he didn't like...
...Democrats have stuck to their initial assessment of Bolton as a right-wing cowboy...
...He said this out of the blue since they hadn't been discussing Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations...
...now that he's ambassador...
...He wants the United States to force Israel to stop the expansion of settlements on the West Bank...
...Bolton's leadership...
...Then he'll rise to the top as a U.N...
...Joshua Muravchik, the author of The Future of the United Nations, says Bolton should ruffle feathers at the U.N...
...On all three, the answer was yes...
...This was an important moment, maybe not historic but surely unusual...
...Hoge had written that Bolton once "burst" into a meeting on U.N...
...And you only have to listen to Voinovich to know why...
...Bolton insisted council members show up on time for sessions...
...That one Bolton has passed...
...The Heritage Foundation's expert on the U.N., Nile Gardiner, says Bolton is similar to Kirkpatrick...
...It was a lovefest...
...He has really tried to be a team player," Voinovich says...
...national interest" and "is respected as a force to be reckoned with inside the U.N...
...secretary general Kofi Annan are rejected...
...He was assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs at the time...
...The ambassadors he consulted overwhelmingly spoke favorably of Bolton...
...and say "things that need to be said," as Moynihan and Kirk-patrick did...
...What Voinovich calls his "interpersonal skills" were especially significant...
...Since the U.N...
...Seeing is believing," says Republican senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota...
...But after a trip to the U.N...
...He learned of Voinovich's new take on Bolton when he read his morning paper...
...Voinovich was worried about Bolton's reputation as a political brawler and diplomatic klutz...
...Besides, Bolton "is a household name now...
...She, too, believed Bolton had not been the bull in a china shop at the U.N...
...He's reserved himself...
...Belying any political motive, Voinovich turned down requests for TV or print interviews on Bolton...
...As I said about 30 seconds ago, yes, I do," Bolton snapped...
...You know," he said, "I've been thinking about John Bolton...
Vol. 12 • September 2006 • No. 1
