Tuesday, December 05, 2006

How 'Bout the White House Just Let Harry Reid Choose?   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A Collection of Moderate Names Bandied About as Replacements for Bolton

By Elaine Monaghan, CQ Daily  December 4, 2006  6:46 p.m.

John R. Bolton’s shoes as ambassador to the United Nations are unlikely to fit any of the potential candidates to take his place. He’s blunt, tough and irreverent.

His resignation, announced Monday by President Bush after a protracted nomination battle in the Senate, heralds a new tug of war over whether a Democratic-led Congress should have more say over the tone of U.S. foreign policy.

Republican moderate Jim Leach of Iowa, who lost his House seat last month, has garnered support from his colleagues.

Forty-eight representatives have signed a “Dear Colleague” letter supporting Leach, including one member-elect and seven moderate Republicans.

In the absence of any clear guidance from the White House or Congress, the speculation in foreign policy circles in Washington and New York has focused on a list of possible candidates broadly in line with a similar list from Foreign Policy magazine, published by the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

One name is Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost his Senate seat in Rhode Island.

However, Chafee was among the Senate Foreign Relations committee members who stood in Bolton’s way. As the last Republican refusing to promise a yes vote, he has been criticized for sinking Bolton’s chances.

In announcing Bolton’s resignation, Bush blamed “stubborn obstructionism” among senators for a decision he said “ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation.”

 Democrats said it was Bush’s own fault for picking someone so controversial and partisan, and now was his chance to choose a more palatable candidate....

Lincoln Chafee? LINCOLN CHAFEE? Once again, where do they get this stuff?

12/05 05:24 AMShare