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John Bolton Likely to Depart U.N. Stewart Stogel New York -- NewsMax has learned that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton will likely leave his post next month.
After a rocky series of Senate confirmation hearings, Bolton was sent to the U.N. by President Bush in August 2005 under a recess appointment. That allowed the president to bypass Senate confirmation while it was in recess, but the appointee could only serve for the length of the current Congress which is set to expire at year's end.
There had been indications that Bolton might win Senate confirmation after the election when several key votes might be open to favoring Bolton. But the GOP's apparent loss of the Senate has doomed that hope.
The White House is sending the Bolton nomination to the Senate this week while Republicans are still in control, but a source close to the U.S. mission to the U.N. tells NewsMax "This nomination is dead and we have known it for several days."
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"We just don't know what the White House wants to do next," the source added.
Sources close to Senator Lincoln Chafee tell NewsMax that the Rhode Island Republican, who was defeated in his re-election bid, will not support the White House effort to get Bolton's U.N. appointment approved by the full Senate. It was Chafee who had blocked earlier efforts by the White House to get the nomination out of the Foreign Relations Committee to full Senate for a vote. In recent weeks, Chafee was reported to be "re-thinking" his position. In the end, the support the White House had been counting on did not materialize. A source close to Bolton told NewsMax that Chafee "was key" to getting the Bolton nomination off dead center. Chafee's decison, along with that of incoming committee chairman, Joseph Biden, D-Del., who is also on record blocking Bolton, severely, if not fatally, ends any chance of Bolton winning Senate approval.
President Bush has strongly supported Bolton and has repeatedly called upon the Senate committee to allow the nomination to go to the full Senate for an "up and down vote." Senate Democrats again blocked such a vote Wednesday evening.
Bolton has been one of the administration's few high-ranking conservatives. During Bush's first term, Bolton served as under secretary of state for arms control and international security. At that post he aggressively pursued rogue state's like Iran who have been developing weapons of mass destruction. Bolton has been credited in getting Libya to agree to dismantle its WMD program.
Bolton's principled and sometimes confrontational approach has not won support from many congressional Democrats.
"The Bolton nomination will not get voted on," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., reportedly has told colleagues.
Another leading Democrat, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a long-time Bolton nemesis, seconded Reid's position on Wednesday. Biden is expected to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the new Congress convenes in January.
While Bolton's office in New York has not commented on developments, NewsMax has learned that the White House is considering reappointing Bolton under the same recess appointment provision. There is a hiccup: Bolton would be forced to serve without pay, an unlikely alternative sources say.
Among those believed to be on a White House short list to replace Bolton is former Senate majority leader and prominent Maine Democrat George Mitchell.
Editor's note:
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