A leading Senate opponent of John R. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations has signaled that Democrats will drop their objections to a vote on Mr. Bolton's nomination if the White House compromises in a dispute over access to information about his actions.
Senate Republicans are expected to try again this week to push for a vote on Mr. Bolton's nomination. Senate Democrats succeeded last month in blocking such a vote, but they have said they are not certain of succeeding again, even if the administration continues to refuse to hand over the information they have demanded.
The opponent, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, did not abandon the Democrats' insistence that the administration provide more information about Mr. Bolton's role in two areas, including his success in obtaining highly classified information about American individuals and companies whose names appeared in communications intercepted by the National Security Agency.
But in a letter to John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, Mr. Dodd suggested that Democrats could settle for something less than complete access to those names. As one possibility, Mr. Dodd proposed that Mr. Negroponte might instead assure the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that none of the names obtained by Mr. Bolton were among "names of concern" to be listed by the panel.
File the above under "disgusting news." (Disgusting news, not disgusting reporting.) It's from Douglas Jehl's "Dodd Proposes Compromise Over Information He Seeks on Bolton" in this morning's New York Times.
As Judy Collins might sing, "Send in the DINOs, Where are the DINOs? Oh look, they're here."
In contrasting news, Patrick D. Healy's "Senator Clinton Assails G.O.P. at Fund-Raiser" proves that Hillary Clinton, at least, still knows how to energize the base:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton castigated President Bush and Congressional Republicans yesterday as being mad with power and self-righteousness, complained that the news media have been timid in taking on the administration, and suggested that some Washington Republicans have a God complex.
Senator Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely seen as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party was hamstrung in fighting back because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame.
While she has recently highlighted her moderate views, her remarks yesterday were starkly partisan and meant to rally her most loyal supporters at a time when at least four New York Republicans are preparing to run against her. She made the remarks at a Midtown hotel to about 1,000 supporters at a "Women for Hillary" breakfast that was her first major Senate re-election fund-raiser. Contributions from the event totaled about $250,000.
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