Bolton Nomination Goes To Full Senate

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today voted straight down party lines to send John Bolton's nomination as U.N. Ambassador to the Senate for a full vote. All eight Democrats on the committee voted against moving Bolton forward while the 10 Republicans all voted for sending the nomination to the Senate floor.

However, Bolton's nomination is still in trouble, with Senator George Voinovich, R-Ohio, indicating that while he believes Bolton deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate, he would not be voting for Bush's contentious nominee in the full Senate vote.

"The United States can do better than John Bolton," said Voinovich, during today's hearings.

If five more Republicans also find that a harsh, ill-tempered critic of the U.N. would not make an ideal chief diplomat to that body, Bolton's nomination will be defeated in a Senate vote.

Let's hope a handful of GOP Senators follow Voinovich's lead in not just rubber-stamping every unsavory nominee Bush brings forward.