Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/27/AR2006072701556.html
At Bolton Hearing, Some Unnatural Phenomena
By Dana Milbank
Friday, July 28, 2006; A02 [followup from yesterday’s govt] [I saw a couple of hours worth on C-SPAN I] [************]
It would be no exaggeration to say that yesterday's confirmation hearing for John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was a washout.
Three hours into the dreary and desultory proceedings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a torrent of water began to pour from light fixtures in the ceiling, creating a waterfall between the nominee and the senators.
"We seem to have a little distraction," Bolton observed.
Congressional and State Department aides hurried to put trash cans under the leak, but the gusher spread toward the stenographer, causing puddles in the carpet and ultimately dripping on Sen. Barack Obama, who fled his seat.
"I just felt something come down on me," the Illinois Democrat declared.
"You can come and sit with me," Bolton offered.
"Let's hope it's rainwater and not something else," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).
It turns out a hot-water pipe had burst in the women's locker room of a fitness center two stories above the hearing room. The resulting downpour provided a stream of cracks -- "before we get rained out . . . keep the buckets coming . . . this is a form of transparency" -- until Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) entered the room and declared in solemn tones that he would be making no remarks about the leak.
"All the comments have been made about the flood," he announced. That ended the fun before some of the best puns could be made.
Such as "Bolton's in hot water now."
Or "Hope this leak isn't classified."
As it happens, the cascade provided a fitting coda for a hearing in which both sides seemed to be suggesting that the administration's foreign policy -- at least the one unveiled during President Bush's first term -- was all washed up. Neoconservatives dreamed that the flexing of American muscle in Iraq would cause the world to fall in line behind U.S. leadership; instead, the administration is struggling to build consensus at the United Nations on Iran and North Korea and discouraging any whisper of unilateralism or preemptive military strikes.
"In almost every recent case, the Bush administration has embraced a multilateral dimension to problem-solving that recognizes that we need allies," Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) judged as he opened the hearing.
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), who opposed Bolton when he first came before the committee, gushed: "One of the concerns everyone had was you might go up there and do your own thing and didn't understand how important consensus was. And I think you've been very, very active in working on consensus."
The hearing had the energy of a rerun, which it was. After Democrats blocked Bolton's nomination last year, Bush gave him a "recess" appointment, putting Bolton in the odd position of being temporary, even though he is called the "Permanent Representative to the United Nations." This time, it's not about giving Bolton the job but about extending his contract -- and Democrats are showing little enthusiasm about blocking him again.
Instead, Democrats used Bolton as a proxy to complain about administration policies. Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), perhaps the feistiest Democrat on the committee, used the first nine minutes of her 10-minute question time to criticize Bush policies in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. To help her pronounce the name of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Boxer had a handwritten note in front of her with phonetic spelling ("mah-MOOD"). But at the end of her tirade, she added: "Now, Mr. Bolton, this has nothing to do with you."
If anything, Democrats took the famously combative Bolton to task for not being fierce enough. "I want you to get tough with the Chinese and the Russians," Nelson instructed.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) appeared to be particularly agitated about Bolton. As he prepared to question the nominee, Feingold furiously scratched out items on a 24-point list, which he had scribbled on wrinkled yellow legal paper in black, red and blue ink. The list, which the senator later discarded, was entirely illegible.
But Feingold, too, was in the strange position of scolding Bolton for being insufficiently tough on Iran, North Korea and the U.N. Human Rights Council.
With Democrats sounding like neocons, the Republicans didn't have much to worry about. Lugar left midway through the session, handing the gavel to Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Four Republicans didn't show up at all.
Bolton himself, who once suggested U.N. headquarters in New York could afford to lose 10 floors, sounded almost French in his praise of multilateralism. "Mr. Chairman, I have had the opportunity to hold direct discussions with almost every permanent representative from other member states," he cooed. "During this period, I've done my best to work with others."
Throughout the session, Bolton dropped nuggets sure to offend the hawks. He said he "unequivocally" thought the United States should pay its full U.N. dues. He said there should "absolutely" be a "viable, contiguous Palestinian state." And, after aides distributed his prepared testimony to reporters, they returned with a revised copy that excised a sentence defending the Israeli military action in Lebanon.
That dripping sound was the lifeblood draining out of the neocon movement.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company