The Neocons Win The Day - Bolton Nomination Advances to Senate

The spineless nitwits that are the Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee showed itself in all its' glory today as the Bolton nomination was sent to the senate floor for a vote. The only concession that seems to have been made was sending it without recommendation. The final vote was (as expected) right along party lines 10-8. Early on in the business meeting of the SFRC, it looked as though Sen. Voinovich was going to open the door for other Republican no votes when he spent the better part of his time slamming Bolton with such quotes as this describing him as: "the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be." But unfortunately at the end of the day, he too voted to send the nomination to the full senate. The thing that dumbfounds me, is the fact every Republican member of the committee voted for Bolton not because he was the right person for the job, but instead used Voinovich's rationale of "We owe it to the president to give Mr. Bolton an up-or-down vote on the floor." What hogwash!!!! Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) described the reason a no vote should have prevailed: "I don't believe it's in the national interest to have an ideologue who appears to have no governor on his internal engine representing the United States at the U.N. Is it in the national interest to have someone who has a reputation for exaggerating intelligence seeking and speaking for the U.N. when the next crisis arises, whether it's Iran or Syria? And it will arise. We have already lost a lot of credibility at home and abroad after the fiasco over the intelligence on Iraq, and Mr. Bolton is not the man to help us to rebuild it." Added Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.)...... "To send someone as our ambassador to the United Nations who does not demonstrate a basic respect for the institution and its legal foundations is a disservice to our national interests." Does the fact that this man despises the U.N. matter? Does the fact that he outright lied to the committee during his appearance in front of them matter? Does the fact that he is the laughing stock and the subject of even more ridicule abroad than Bush himself matter?...........Apparently not to these bozos. I fear now that Bolton will indeed be confirmed by the full Senate, showing the rest of the world once again that the neocons are in full command of the United States of America.