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05/26/2005: "Go Barbara Go! Boxer: again, only one in the Senate with any balls!! Boxer for President!"

Boxer: Senate Should Delay Bolton Vote

WASHINGTON - The White House is stiff-arming Democrats over classified information about President Bush's pick to be United Nations ambassador, and the Senate should put off a vote on the embattled nominee until next month, a Democratic opponent argued Thursday.

"We should delay this until we see that information; it's a matter of right and wrong," Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., maintained at the start of a second day of Senate debate over John R. Bolton's fitness and qualifications. "It is right for us to get that information, it is wrong for the administration to withhold it."

The Senate planned a procedural vote Thursday that Democrats hoped to win and force postponement of a confirmation vote until June. If Republicans prevailed, the Senate was expected to quickly approve Bolton, whom President Bush says would reform the United Nations.

The material, which Democrats have sought for weeks, involves Bolton's use of government intelligence on Syria and instances in which he asked for names of fellow U.S. officials whose communications were secretly picked up by a spy agency.

Boxer read out a litany of allegations about Bolton that she said show he is ill-suited to be the nation's top representative at the world body. She also accused Bolton of misleading the Senate committee that wrangled over Bolton's nomination for weeks without offering him its endorsement.

"John Bolton did not tell the truth to the Foreign Relations Committee," on several points, Boxer alleged. "If nothing else I've said matters ... you ought to care about telling the truth to a committee of the United States Senate," Boxer told other senators. "We have it chapter and verse. We have it cold here."

Democrats said Wednesday they did not plan to mount a filibuster, or procedural delays, to indefinitely block the vote, and some of their leading voices seemed to acknowledge that time was running out.

"I would seriously hope that the president — and I really don't have much hope — but I wish the president had taken another look at this and found us someone" else, Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., said.

Republicans said it was time to vote after weeks of exhaustive investigation into allegations that Bolton mistreated subordinates and misused government intelligence. This week's bipartisan agreement on judicial filibusters in the Senate and the approach of the Memorial Day recess, which starts at week's end, seemed to be sapping some of the strength from the effort by Bolton's opponents to erect further roadblocks.

"Where does legitimate due diligence turn into partisanship?" asked Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. "Where does the desire for the truth turn into a competition over who wins and who loses?"