Republican senator urges vote against Bolton - Yahoo! News
One has to wonder why Mr. Voinovich let Bolton out of committee if he felt this strongly. Dude was practically crying on the Senate floor, citing concern for his grandkids. Interestingly enough, this story does not point that out, but I saw the clip on ABC last night.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican senator tried to convince his colleagues on Wednesday to reject John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as the Senate headed toward a vote on President Bush's contentious pick.

Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, the one Republican to openly oppose Bolton, urged senators not to vote for him simply out of loyalty to the president. Voinovich said they should consider whether he had shown a record of abusive, erratic behavior that should disqualify him for the sensitive diplomatic job.

"Opponents have argued that Secretary Bolton's personality will prevent him from being effective at the U.N., but his diplomatic successes over the last four years belie that expectation," said Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Republicans aimed for a vote on Thursday on Bolton, currently the top U.S. diplomat for arms control, and expected he would be confirmed largely along party lines.

But at Democrats' insistence, the Senate was slated to hold a procedural vote on Thursday that could delay his confirmation until after Congress' Memorial Day recess next week.

If they fail to get the 41 votes out of 100 required to extend the debate on the nomination, Democrats agreed to go immediately to a vote on Bolton on Thursday.

Democrats wanted time to make a last demand the administration turn over documents they said would shed more light on whether Bolton tried to tamper with intelligence assessments.

If the Senate fails to insist on the information, "We weaken the ability of this place to do its job. And that's really what's at stake in the debate here," said Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd.

Democrats, joined by Voinovich, contend Bolton is a hard-line conservative ideologue and a bully who tried to pressure intelligence officials into making their findings support his political views.

What are the odds of the WH releasing those documents? Slim and none. I wish they would vote him down just for that, run to the media and claim "Well, we would have given him a fair vote, but the WH withheld the documents to make that possible". Put it right back on George.

The White House and most Republicans have said senators had seen more than enough information to decide on Bolton, and accused Democrats of deliberately stalling the nomination.

Accuse, obfuscate, deny. Same shit, different day. I'd love to see Biden come out and say, "Yes, we are deliberately stalling until you provide the information. So? We have that right." Make them answer for their behavior.

Why don't they do that? Stand up!