Specter: Vote for U.N. Nominee 'Too Close to Call'
Sun Apr 24, 2005 03:10 PM ET
By Randy Fabi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The vote on whether President Bush's embattled nominee for ambassador to the United Nations will be confirmed was "too close to call," a senior Republican senator said on Sunday.

Four Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have asked for more time to review John Bolton's record before voting on his nomination.

"Well, at this point, I think it's too close to call," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania on CNN's Late Edition. Specter is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has agreed to a May 12 vote on Bolton.

The nomination is in doubt after allegations that Bolton tried to force intelligence analysts to write their analyzes to suit his views and that he was abusive to junior officials.

Senate Republican committee members Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and George Voinovich of Ohio have decided that accusations against Bolton merited further examination.

If all eight Democrats on the committee vote against Bolton, as expected, just one Republican vote opposing him would be enough to block the nomination. "He wants to be our top diplomat at the U.N. but his life has been something less than diplomatic," said Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, on Fox's "News Sunday." "This man doesn't have the temperament for this job."

Newsweek reported that top British officials on several occasions complained to U.S. officials about Bolton's uncompromising attitude. In one instance, British officials in 2003 persuaded the White House to keep Bolton off the negotiating team to convince Libya to surrender its nuclear program. The New York Times reported that declassified e-mail messages suggest animosity between Bolton and his staff on the one hand, and intelligence analysts on the other.