Bolton Vote Likely Thursday

Barring any new revelations over the course of the evening or early tomorrow morning, this will probably be my final post on the Bolton nomination before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets at 10 a.m. to consider the matter and then hold a vote on confirmation. A few recent updates and some final thoughts:

- According to NBC News, the White House is confident that the vote on Bolton will occur tomorrow and will go their way. At the same time, Senator Biden was a little cagey, saying "that because the State Department has not turned over information on 10 intercepts Bolton requested from the National Security Agency, a planned Thursday vote by the committee may be in jeopardy." Biden told NBC "I do not know" when asked if a vote would occur on committee confirmation for Bolton, "I haven't made up my mind."

Biden said that he intended to send a letter to Mr. Bolton late Wednesday asking for his permission to examine the documents, which were jointly requested by Biden and Foreign Relations Committee chairman Dick Lugar.

- Steve Clemons has posted PDF files of the original Bolton hearings, along with all of the interviews conducted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff in the past three weeks. If you really want to read up on the Bolton nomination, this is the place.

- At this point, I think it's rather unlikely that the vote will be postponed tomorrow - it's up to reasonable Republicans now to review the allegations against Mr. Bolton and really ask themselves if this is the right person that we want representing us at the United Nations. The question should not be over whether the Administration sends a "reformer" to the UN - there are plenty of perfectly good candidates who aren't John Bolton. There are any number of potential ambassadors who have not performed in the reckless, dangerous and irresponsible way John Bolton has.

There is no excuse for Bolton's attempts to fire or transfer intelligence analysts (Christian Westermann, Rexon Ryu, Fulton Armstrong, and others unnamed) because they disagreed with him. There is no excuse for his attempts to use harsher language regarding the weapons of mass destruction efforts of various countries (Syria, Sudan, probably Iraq) than intelligence information warranted. There is no excuse for his abrasive, abusive style that is decidedly undiplomatic and caused him to be pulled from various diplomatic negotiation projects (Iran, Libya, North Korea). There is no excuse for his long and fervent opposition to the basic mission of the United Nations.

We can do better than John Bolton, America.