WASHINGTON - Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton
will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White
House said Monday.
John
Bolton appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol
Hill in this Monday, April 11, 2005 file photo, on his nomination to be
ambassador to the United Nations. Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N.
Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his recess appointment expires
soon, the White House said Monday, Dec. 4, 2006. [AP]
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Bolton's nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln
Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that
swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to
Bolton.
Critics have questioned Bolton's brusque style and whether he could be an
effective bureaucrat who could force reform at the U.N.
President Bush gave Bolton the job temporarily in August 2005, while Congress
was in recess. Under that process, the appointment expires when Congress
formally adjourns, no later than early January.
The White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination last month. But with
Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning
confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw "no
point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again."
While Bush could not give Bolton another recess appointment, the White House
was believed to be exploring other ways of keeping him in the job, perhaps by
giving him a title other than ambassador. But Bolton informed the White House he
intended to leave when his current appointment expires, White House deputy press
secretary Dana Perino said.
Bush planned to meet with Bolton and his wife later Monday in the Oval
Office.
As late as last month, Bush, through his top aides, said he would not relent
in his defense of Bolton, despite unwavering opposition from Democrats who view
Bolton as too combative for international diplomacy.
Perino said that among Bolton's accomplishments, he assembled coalitions
addressing North Korea's nuclear activity, Iran's uranium enrichment and
reprocessing work and the horrific violence in Darfur. She said he also made
reform at the United Nations a top issue because the United States is searching
for a more "credible" and more "effective."
"Ambassador Bolton served his country with distinction and he achieve a great
deal at the United Nations," Perino said.
"Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassdor
Bolton's confirmation was blocked by a Democratic filibuster, and this is a
clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process," she said.
"Nominees deserve the opportunity for a clean up or down vote. Ambassador Bolton
was never given that opportunity."
Perino said Bush had reluctantly accepted Bolton's decision to leave when his
current appointment expired.