Getting A Little Worried...

I'll admit, I'm a staunch supporter of President Bush. Sure, the War in Iraq is unsettling to say the least, and I certainly don't fully support every single thing that President Bush does, but by large, I believe that he is the right man for the job...if by nothing else in comparison to his counterparts.

I also believe that Bush has the potential to do many necessary things to help make the United States stronger in the future. Social Security and tort reform are just a couple of things that come to mind that I will undoubtedly discuss in the future.

But the thing that has me worried is the action taken while Congress was on recess. President Bush pushed his nomination for U.N. Ambassador, John Bolton, through while congress was in recess, thus side-stepping their comfirmation of the U.N. Ambassador nominee. The Senate voted twice on John Bolton's nomination, and both times there were not enough votes to have him confirmed as U.N. Ambassador. To be clear, this was not due solely because of party politics, though no Democrats approved of Bolton's nomination. A few Republicans were against Bolton's confirmation as well.

If you are not familiar with John Bolton, it has been noted that he is a "serial abuser" of subordinates and has been quoted in the past as saying, "There's no such thing as the United Nations. If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." It is also said that John Bolton tried to fire two intelligence agents simply because they had a different opinion than he did.

I don't know about you, but none of that stuff sounds great to me. The Senate wasn't too fond of it either. They failed confirmating votes twice, and called for some documents to be disclosed because they felt it would be relavent to the nomination. Those documents were never produced, and despite all the hesitation, Bush forced the nomination while Congress was out on recess.

To me, doing what's right is more important that sticking by your friend...especially when the stakes are high. There was clear evidence that John Bolton's nomination needed further investigation, but that was ignored, and Bolton was hurried into the position anyway.

What's worse, is Indiana's very own Senator, Rich Lugar, said he would have preferred a final confirmation vote for Bolton, but called the recess appointment "necessary to ensure our representation at the United Nations."

My first instinct was to call this party politics and say that Senator Lugar was kowtowing to President Bush. But rather than that, I decided to do a little research to see what Senator Lugar was thinking. I found his website and a copy of his speech just before the last senate vote. He stated in part, "The President has stated repeatedly that this is not a casual appointment. He and Secretary Rice want a specific person to do a specific job. They have said that they want John Bolton, an avowed and knowledgeable reformer, to carry out their reform agenda at the United Nations. "

Senator Lugar went on to voice his opinion on how the documents that were requested by the senate should not be given. Ultimately I am still left with the feeling that Senator Lugar is aligning himself within party politics rather than voting with an open mind.

Senators talked about needing intelligence information surrounding September 11th and demanded further intelligence information surrounding reasons for invading Iraq...so why shouldn't they demand information when they are voting for someone that will need to foster relations with the rest of the world leaders?