Steve -

Well said.

I hope that Senator Collins is reading this. She deserves every word.

JF

Pity the poor senators. Here's the sad tale of another one:

Making a grown man cry

Later in the week, the comic first act on Pennsylvania Avenue gave way to a tragic second act on Capital Hill.

Reports are divided as to whether Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) was crying or just fighting back tears as he spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday. But either way, he was obviously very emotional as he begged his Republican colleagues to reconsider their party line support of John Bolton, the Bush nominee for ambassador to the United Nations.

"I know some of my friends say, 'Let it go, George. It's going to work out,' " Voinovich said. "I don't want to take the risk. I came back here and ran for a second term because I'm worried about my kids and my grandchildren."

It was also clear that Voinovich was worried for his political life. Conservative groups are already running ads against him, and Bush allies have been busily trashing him to anyone who'll listen.

The pressure, Voinovich told one interviewer, has been "overwhelming."

Listening to Voinovich's desperately cracking voice was utterly heartbreaking. And so was this line, written by Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Sabrina Eaton after the close of the senator's speech: "With that, Voinovich returned to his seat and fidgeted with a yellow highlighting pen until he regained his composure."

Anyone who has ever cried at work knows exactly what that moment felt like, trying so hard to fight back tears that it only makes you cry more. It is the loneliest feeling in the world.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/pickett/cst-nws-pickett27.html

As I understand, Voinovitch is so popular in Ohio that he does not have to toe the party line to keep his seat. If this is the case, he has nothing to fear from the storm troopers.

We all know that Voinovitch could have killed the Bolton nomination in committee, so what's with the emotional display?

susan:

"...so what's with the emotional display?"

The usual.

They've got something on him, or he thinks they do.

JF

"They've got something on him, or he thinks they do."

Wonder if it has anything to do with rare coins?

susan:

It's possible.

Jesus, what a sucker-play. Why didn't they just invest in comic books, and have done with it?

JF

I think Sen. Voinovich's role as a grandfather is very important to him and never fail to mention it when I write to him. Clearly, he's under enormous strain on the Bolton nomination, because of the rare-coin scandal here in Ohion and who knows what else. But when we're under the gun like he is, the best of us search our souls for what it truly important, the bedrock on which we take our stand. I think he's at the point where he's thinking about family and future generations with each decision he makes. I think we saw a man in the trench with bullets flying overhead, holding the picture of loved ones close to his breast. I don't understand how people can mock something so movingly human as that . . .

Voinovich did much to scuttle a bright future for his kids and grand-kids. They will be black-balled by conservatives in business and government, and not be able to have decent careers or advancement because they are the offspring of a traitor. That is why Voinovich is crying, he has doomed his family to future lower middle class nothingness enforced by the aristo-power elite, and all because he wouldn't play ball. What a shame.

speaking of voinovich -- while governor his admin approved the first $25 million purchase of rare coins that is now blowing up the gop in ohio.

too bad -- are you saying he should have played ball? I don't understand the thrust of your comment.

I've been perplexed by the Voinovich thing myself. Everyone knew the military base closings were scheduled to be announced, and there were strong expectations that Ohio would suffer greatly. As things went down, Voinovich knocked Bolton in committee, then the base closings were announced and -- surprise -- Ohio not only didn't lose any, they are scheduled to pick up over a thousand new jobs. Suddenly Voinovich votes to let the Bolton nomination go to the full Senate. It could just be a big coincidence I guess -- but when I've listened to Voinovich speak the impression that this is a man who had to sell out something he strongly believed in for the good of his state rings true. Now with Thune coming out against Bolton expressly in retaliation over the base closings, it seems like the two issues are going to be intrinsically tied as BushCo. tries to strong-arm members of the Senate into falling into line over upcoming battles.

I thought it was interesting that someone in an earlier post noted that Specter's disappearance gave people like Snowe and Collins cover to vote for cloture yet guarantee its failure. Those severe base closings in Maine could really hurt them with their constituencies and it's probably extremely risky for them to alienate BushCo. right now.

Well the sideshow is fascinating, at the very least.

The deception used to lie the American people into an unnecessary, illegal, and immoral attack on Iraq:

"........ a national embarrassment and scandal the magnitude of which the country has not even begun to come to grips with."

"It's truly a national scandal -- but one, the surface of which has barely been scratched because the institutions with oversight responsibility have vested interest in not revealing what happened."

"It's a national scandal for which, as time goes by, we all collectively become more and more responsible."

Read it all -
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_05_22.php#005752

THIS IS THE REAL ISSUE ABOVE ALL OTHERS AND THE BOLTON NOMINATION PROVIDES THE ENTRANCEWAY TO THE DARK TRUTH ABOUT WHAT OUR NATION HAS DONE.

slowly but surely:

I disagree. You're losing the forest for a tree - or maybe a small stand of them. The war in Iraq is a symptom; not the disease.

The issue - the central issue - is whether or not the citizens of this country own the country, or the wingnut theocrats do.

We are free men and women in a free country, or we aren't. We control our destiny, or we don't. And I, for one, will not be treated like a child by these jesusfreak tyrants.

All else follows from that.

JF

it seems John Thune is also voting "no" on Bolton.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/05/28/white_house_denies_senators_papers_ on_bolton_nomination/

He is doing this to protest the closure of Ellsworth Base in South Dakota and is according to other articles, willing to change his vote if the base remains open.

iS

"I think we saw a man in the trench with bullets flying overhead, holding the picture of loved ones close to his breast."

If Grandpa V. is like most Republicans, the only thing he holds close to his breast is his wallet.

JF,

The war in Iraq is a symptom; not the disease.

I think that you hit the nail on the head. My analogy, a patient goes to the doctor with cancer and a broken leg, and the doctor only treats the broken leg. Since I'm of the mindset that we need to kill the patient so to speak, I think that kicking the broken leg is an effective strategy, the country is probably not up to the chemo treatment at this point.

This rare coin story is astounding.
Apparently Tom Noe has his hooks in every major elected Republican official in Ohio, including Voinovich. Now more than $10 million of state money is missing, suspected of having being funneled into the Bush-Cheney campaign.
I don't know how this affects Voinovich, but doesn't coingate have the potential to blow up into a national scandal if that huge sum is traced to the Bush-Cheney campaign?
The reporting of Josh Marshall in talkingpointsmemo.com on the NH phone-jamming case makes it clear that there has been RNC invovlement at the national level in some scandals. It could be that Voinovich knows something that could bring BUSH down, rather than vice-versa, and THAT means that he is getting a double-dose of horse's heads to keep quiet.

This is all speculative, but it might be worth seeing exactly what connections Noe has to Voinovich.

As a final aside, Noe appears to be yet another Republican with a fondness for under-age boys.
A police report reproduced on rawstory.com a few months ago gave strong evidence to that effect.

JF,

Going after the Christian Fundy's outright is just playing into their victimhood, persecution, religious martyr game. They are destroyed if this administration is revealed as War Criminals. Take what you can get, and the getting is getting better all the time. To attack fundamentalist Christianity wholesale is biting off way more than we can chew. Paint them as supporters of War Criminals after it is broadly realized by the American people, and we've captured their Jesus, Jesus is ours, and he'll be who we say he is.

V's tears?: I think he is looking past Bolton at bigger things at stake. So, too bad jake's comment is too superficial. He is worried more about there even being a world for his grandkids, much less a middle class.

First of all, Voinovich cracking up seemed totally spontanous and genuine to me. I guess the connection going on in his head, about possible new nuclear reginal wars in and around Iran and Nortt Korea, and him picturing his own grand-children just choked him up while saying it out loud. Fair enough, and it only served him well, in my eyes.

We all know that Voinovitch could have killed the Bolton nomination in committee, so what's with the emotional display?

Well, but do we, really? Killing Bolton in committee would only have paved the way for a, somewhat "legitimate" recess apointment. Filibustering as long as a month would mean the same thing, although to a lesser degree.

The only certain (and the most legitimate) way of keeping Bolton away from the UN is to have him voted down in an "upperdown" vote on the floor. Then Bolton cannot ever, ever be recess appointed to the UN or anything similarly important. I suspect this is how Voinovich is thinking.

The delaying filibuster is perceived by at least part of the press as legitimate at this time, but it will have a very short half-life, politically speaking. The dems will have to allow the (up-or-)down vote on Bolton in June. But if they can delay the vote long enough to demonstrate to some republicans that there most likely is even more troublesome evidence not allowed into the record, he can be voted down with six republicans. Even McCain is making noises to that effect at the moment, if you read between the lines. Maybe the "Gang" will talk over the recess.

Since we're talking about Voiny's weaping, there has been no discussion of what Voiny said immediately prior to weaping:

"The emperor has no clothes"

In context, it sounded like he was referring to Bolton. But emperors are, well, emperors. They lead countries. I've wondered since he said that whether Grandpa Voiny was literally trying to proclaim the emperor has no clothes?

I'm wondering if it's at all possible that Sen. Voinovich was strongly disinclined to let Bolton out of committee, but could be strong-armed on the upperdown thing, UNTIL he learned something deeply, deeply dark about the nominee AFTER he got out of committee. The kind of beyond-the-pale thing that made him regret succumbing to the arm-twisting on the committee vote.

Just an alternate theory here.

I have thought the same thing, but I admit I have a tendency to give weeping grandfathers an emotional benefit of doubt.

The Bush administration is very similar in its' iron-grip on power to Hitler's Nazi regime in the 1930s...

These neo-con thugs including Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, etc. want to cover-up for the fact that Bolton abused the NSA intercepts to punish anybody who doesn't bow-down and cower before them...

It is imperative that the GOP Senators stop being Nazi-style collaborators-- used and abused by the Bushies for their own sordid & squalid purposes...

Well, i'm not sure what else Voinovich can do.
I think the reasoning about needing to defeat Bolton in a full floor vote is correct: if Bolton's nomination is blocked, then Bush will make a recess appointment.
The facts Voinovich would like to share with his colleagues about Bolton are likely classified, so all he can do is implore them to vote him down.
I think we should get off Voinovich's back. More than anyone else in the Senate, he has blocked the confirmation.

I also implore Ohioans to examine the connections between Voinovich and Noe. The scale of coin-gate dwarfs any state-level money scandal I am aware of (which isn't saying much), and may be directly tied to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Every day, this story gets bigger and bigger. A few weeks ago, coin-gate was just one anomalous piece of data. Today it is blowing up the Ohio GOP. And tomorrow? The sky is the limit.. given the top down control of GOP campaigns, it is hard to believe that Rove or someone close to him was not aware of Coingate.

marky:

Yuo're right about Voinovich - we do owe a debt there.

"A few weeks ago, coin-gate was just one anomalous piece of data."

Have you ever noticed that the hugest and most meaningful scandals always start out as the tiniest of blips on the radar? Like Watergate. You're right - this money definitely needs to be followed.

slowly but surely:

"To attack fundamentalist Christianity wholesale is biting off way more than we can chew."

Sounds like you're a Sun Tzu kind of guy...

Not me. Clausewitz all the way.

JF

The dems will have to allow the (up-or-)down vote on Bolton in June.

No, they don't. Even Joementum has said he'll stick with the Dems and deny a floor vote until the WH provides the documents requested which they never, ever will.

Stalemate. Bolton goes nowhere.

firedoglake:

...and it's damn decent of Lieberman to stick with the Democrats, too. Or to say he will, anyway. Has there ever been any way to tell what the hell he's going to do?

By the way, I like Sissy Spacek's coloration...

JF

A friend sent me this assessment:--

"Senators Frist, Lugar, Roberts, McCain-- all Rfpublicans-- all prominent Republicans-- and, all GOP Senators who have asked the secretive neo-con Bush/Cheney Inc. regime to disclose to Senate leaders, the names of the U.S. government officials in the NSA intercepts that Bolton demanded & was unusually given access to-- but for what purpose???... Why is the corrupt Bush regime refusing to provide this information to GOP Senators???... Because, should it be discovered that Bolton publically revealed the redacted names in the NSA intercepts, then he will be in violation of the law, and summarily rejected as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations...

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is no dummy... McCain is playing a smart C.Y.A. (cover-your-a.s.s.)-game in which by asking the recalcitrant-cum-mendacious Bush regime to disclose the non-redacted documents that the White House is obviously covering-up, then he (McCain) can claim to have "done the right thing"... (i.e. The corrupt Bush/Cheney Inc. machine is hiding NSA intercepts, non-redacted, that include the names of those 'blacked-out' which Bolton got hold-of-- And, if Bolton revealed their names to the media and/or other sources-- then he is in violation of the law... i.e. a criminal felon)... Ergo, McCain is "safe" in the event that it is finally leaked and/or ultimately revealed that Bolton is a criminal...

McCain supports compromise on secret documents on Bolton

"WASHINGTON - One of John Bolton's leading Republican backers, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, signaled his support on Friday for a compromise in which the White House might allow Senate leaders access to highly classified documents in return for a final vote on Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador early next month.

But the White House showed no sign that the administration might change course.

"The Democrats who are clamoring for this have already voted against John Bolton," said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman. "This is about partisan politics, not documents. They have the information they need."

McCain reiterated support for Bolton on Fox News. Senators calling on the administration to share the documents "have some substance to their argument," McCain said.

"I think that we can resolve this over the recess and get this thing done and get John Bolton to work," he said. "I'm sorry there is going to be a delay."

Forty Democrats and one Independent were able to delay a Senate vote on Bolton until after Memorial Day, demanding that the White House first hand over information related to his conduct in two areas, an intelligence dispute over Syria and the handling of intelligence reports from the National Security Agency."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0528bolton28.html

Regarding my comment (see above) GOP Senators should be advised that the Bush White House seems to be covering-up a criminal (felon) wrong-doing by Bolton-- and, if they cave-into the Bush/Cheney Inc. machine's refusal to answer questions about the redacted names in the NSA intercepts, that they themselves may "take-the-hit" in 2006 (and onwards)-- should the information be leaked after a vote-- which it surely WILL...

Just posted on Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/

"Hunter mentions this article (McCain Urging Accord on Bolton and Secret Documents), but I'd like to focus on the possible compromise:

One of John R. Bolton's leading Republican backers, Senator John McCain of Arizona, signaled his support on Friday for a compromise in which the White House might allow Senate leaders access to highly classified documents in return for a final vote early next month on Mr. Bolton's nomination as United Nations ambassador.

This is good. This is a compromise where the Dems get what they want - the documents they requested. But the White House has other ideas:

"The Democrats who are clamoring for this have already voted against John Bolton," Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "This is about partisan politics, not documents. They have the information they need."

But Frist asked for the documents too:

The aide, who would speak only without being identified when discussing conversations between the two leaders, also said Dr. Frist had intervened with the administration to try to get an intelligence briefing that would satisfy opponents of the nomination.

This is about the White House hiding documents from the Senate:

Mr. Biden and Mr. Dodd [succeeded] in convincing fellow Democrats in dozens of phone calls that the vote was not about Mr. Bolton but about standing up for the Senate and its prerogatives against incursions by the executive branch.

So Frist, McCain and the Democrats think it is reasonable and right for the White House to turn over the requested documents.

What is the White House hiding? That is the question EVERY self respecting reporter in Washington should be asking themselves right now. Let's see if ANYBODY asks that question tomorrow morning on the Sunday shows. They won't - proving that the Media is simply incompetent."

Maybe Madsen is just the reporter we need:

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/050505Madsen/050505madsen.html

Special Report

The unholy trinity of electronic snooping: Bolton, Negroponte and Hayden

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

May 5, 2005—As the Senate Foreign Relations Committee prepares to vote on the nomination of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, further details are emerging from within the U.S. Intelligence Community on unofficial and back channel intelligence operations directed over the past four years from neo-conservative cells in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the National Security Agency (NSA).

The three key participants who have emerged as orchestrating the misuse of NSA and other U.S. intelligence resources to conduct surveillance of those who opposed neoconservative plans to invade Iraq and ratchet up tensions with North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, the Palestinian Authority headed by the late Yasir Arafat, and the former government of Haiti are Bolton; NSA's director and the new Deputy Director for National Intelligence General Michael V. Hayden; and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Iraq and current National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. Hayden served alongside Condoleezza Rice in the National Security Council under President George H. W. Bush.

In the lead up to the Iraq War, Negroponte, Bolton, and Hayden, as well as other leading neoconservatives in the Pentagon and White House, directed an e-mail and telephone surveillance campaign against UN Security Council delegates to determine the voting intentions of wavering countries on the council's resolution authorizing military action against Iraq. The targeted delegations were Angola, Cameroon, Chile, China, France, Mexico, Guinea, Pakistan, and Russia...

Jamie,

Taking the Executive down as War Criminals, disembowels the "jesusfreak tyrants" by smashing their vehicle to power, the Republican Party. Smart moderate Republicans can run for cover when War Criminality realizations in the public begin to set in, and many will say "I was just following party line," but all Republicans will be tarnished who don't cry on camera and plead for forgiveness for what their party is responsible for. It's the whole Republican party that's going down, although their will many nights of long knives in the GOP scape-goating either the Christian Fundies and/or Neocons, and trying to save the Corporatist wing. What piece of the Guilty Party will you be trying to save, Jamie. Our differences being between Clausewitz and Sun-tzu is deception. It's between you wanting to save the Republican Party by cutting off the Fundies (and probably Neocons?), and me throwing the whole lot out on their ear, into War Crime trials that will taint them severely for a generation. There's nothing I want to save from them. Damn them!

slowly but surely:

"...and me throwing the whole lot out on their ear, into War Crime trials that will taint them severely for a generation."

We already did that, back in '74. It just made it worse - repressed rancor and festering bitterness has lasted two generations now. Look dude, it's our country, and we're all in it together - if you can't go into these battles with a certain amount of laughter and an understanding of our basic humanity, then stay home: it'll be easier on your psyche, and our karma.

"What piece of the Guilty Party will you be trying to save, Jamie." [?]

...the part that works, and counterbalances the essential flightiness of the Democrats: fiscal responsibility, engaged but distant internationalism, cautious optimism, capitalism, and the self-reliance that got us where we are. But very few systems - and certainly not ours, even at its best - work well in a vacuum. I'd like to think a third party of moderation will come out of our current mess - that will eventually replace the wilder factions in both parties, and lead to a political tension less dependent on the extremes to maintain balance.

I don't want to kill anybody. I've done that, and it sucks. I want to take their pretty power away for awhile, and show them how its done - that's how you make it work.

Your post is an example of our problems - not our solutions. You're as extreme as the wingnut theocrats, but in the other direction. Do you believe that anything will change - other than the labels - if you do what they have done: spending thirty years accumulating power bases, and then using them all at once - vengefully?

Think it through. You want things better, or the same; but with you on top instead of them?

JF

Jamie,

"We already did that, back in '74. It just made it worse - repressed rancor and festering bitterness has lasted two generations now." - Shouldn't have done that, oh no, shouldn't have made a crook of a President to resign. It made some nasty people more nasty unto evil and what we have now is full manifestation of their revenge. Don't confront the dark side in our land because it will only come back redoubled if it's chastised? No! Reveal it every time one gets the opportunity as a recurring necessary lesson to all people that will change us all for the better. How clear can it be that we have to chastise the Bush regime even more forcefully than we did Nixon's, for what Bush has done compared to Nixon?

"if you can't go into these battles with a certain amount of laughter and an understanding of our basic humanity" - NO LAUGHTER and NO UNDERSTANDING when our country was lied into an unnecessary, illegal, and immoral attack. NO LAUGHTER and NO UNDERSTANDING for a government who committed the highest of crimes that a government can possibly commit.

"it'll be easier on your psyche, and our karma" - Yeah, yeah, take it easy, relax. "Our karma" is going to be dealt bad to us by the rest of the world if we don't hold our government responsible for what they have done. The whole world is watching, and we failed our first moral test in November. They still watch. I'm not worried about my psyche in its righteous John Brown wrath. I like it blazing and pointed.

"essential flightiness of the Democrats" - Like how the label "Liberal" was propagandized into a slur with great help from the "jesusfreak tyrants."

Republican "fiscal responsibility" - like the last 4 years compared to he Clinton administration?

"engaged but distant internationalism" - like pre-Church commission letting the CIA throw countries into civil strife to meet our capitalistic interests, etc.

"capitalism" - like the Democrats are Communists striving abolish capitalism, or perhaps Social Security is a little to much Socialism, or universal health care is unthinkable? Unions are no good too, I reckon'.

"self-reliance" - like all the Welfare Queens that will be running around if the Republicans are crushed for what they have done.

"a third party of moderation" - like Democrats are extremists, as in Liberal. You've been well propagandized over your years by the likes of right wing hate speech.

I don't want to kill anybody, I just want to destroy them and their lies, like Joe McCarthey was destroyed.

"I am extreme .." It's extreme to want War Criminals to account for their crimes? Ooooo, not that, you say, extreme. You want a nice cushy soft landing for our War Criminals so as not to harm the Republican party? Perhaps you'd like to tell us why the Executive are not War Criminals?

If we do what they have done! "Spending thirty years accumulating power bases, and then using them all at once - vengefully?" - Still afraid that Democrats/Liberals are Communists? Going back to the Republican party's John Birch Society propaganda playbook. The power base we would hope to accumulate is an educated people not a propagandized people, a people who know what's good for them, and that war, intolerance, and corporate welfare at the expense of their welfare, ain't it.

Let their be Liberals and Moderates in this country and someplace in the middle of those views we can come to commity, but as for the Right let them always be looked upon with suspicion after War Crime realizations, and for the far-Right let them be regarded with disgust as fascist tyrants should be forevermore.

Let us have a Republic that conducts itself as a Liberal Democracy.

Firedoglake: No, they [the dems] don't [have to allow the (up-or-)down vote on Bolton in June]. Even Joementum has said he'll stick with the Dems and deny a floor vote until the WH provides the documents requested which they never, ever will.

Stalemate. Bolton goes nowhere.

Yes they do, or else Bolton will get recess appointed in July. That's my prediction, at least.

And such a recess appointment it will be somewhat tolerated, becuase it will be a "he said/she said" debate over who was being unreasonable, the "filibustering, obstrucionist democrats" or the "obstructionsit, document-denying White House".

No, he will have to be voted down, fair and square on the floor, and now there is a decent chance he will be, if I am reading Steve corretly.

slowly but surely:

Sigh...

JF

Jamie, c'mon man, you're soundin' like you've come up against Ali floatin' like a butterfly an' stingin' like a bee. Counter, man, don't cover up. Sock it to 'im. He's wide open. Start with refutin' that President Bush and his administration are War Criminals. That one punch deftly delivered will knock all the wind outta him, 'cause that's all he's got. It's all War Criminals, War Criminals, War Criminals, with him. Show'im it just ain't true, no way!

Or, perhaps, it ain't so easy, you being a student of our times. Hell, you could make somethin' up that'll fly, but perhaps you gotta conscience bound up with that knowledge.

Sigh?

I hear ya.

Lou Duva:

You misunderstand...

There is no response to raw hatred.

And fanatics are always wrong - whether one happens to agree with them or not.

JF

That's right. Who would think to hate War Criminals. Crazy man! They're only human, with human foibles. And there's probably some intelligence analyst that can be blamed for this whole mess anyway. We can hate her! But that would be wrong. Whatever happened to Peace, Love, and Understanding. Oh! I see, now someone's going to say I'm soft on War Criminals. What would Jesus do?

Bottomline: If we have War Criminals in elected office, vote them out. Obviously we don't have War Criminals in elected office now because they would have been voted out. Logic is a beautiful thing, Bwahahaha.