Voinovich

Voinovich has sent a letter to all Senators expressing his grave concern over UN Nominee John Bolton, saying:

"In these dangerous times, we cannot afford to put at risk our nation's ability to successfully wage and win the war on terror with a controversial and ineffective ambassador to the United Nations," Mr. Voinovich wrote. He urged colleagues to "put aside our partisan agenda and let our consciences and our shared commitment to our nation's best interests guide us."

The White House remains strongly in favor of Mr. Bolton's nomination, and it is unusual for a Republican to break ranks so publicly by circulating a letter opposed to a Republican president's agenda. A copy of Mr. Voinovich's letter, dated May 23 but not circulated until Tuesday, was provided by a Senate Democratic aide opposed to Mr. Bolton.

The Senate's Republican leaders signaled today that they would try to push for a vote on Mr. Bolton by the end of the week. Senate Democrats have strongly opposed the nomination, and at a lunchtime meeting today, Democratic leaders were weighing possible moves to defeat the nomination, or to use procedural moves to delay or prevent a Senate vote.

...
Mr. Voinovich, a former mayor of Cleveland and governor of Ohio, previously described his decision to oppose Mr. Bolton's nomination as one that was based on conscience. In his letter to colleagues, he repeated a statement made earlier this month to the Foreign Relations Committee, in which he questioned whether Mr. Bolton would "have the character, leadership, interpersonal skills, self-discipline, common decency and understanding of the chain of command to lead his team to victory."

There are some who have said that those critics of Bolton's are living a fool's lie if they believe that "one man" can dismantle the mess that is the UN (or various incantations of this argument). But this is a flawed argument itself that shortsights the issue at the very core of the anti-Bolton tendencies in his opponents [obviously including the weather-wizened AntiCentenarian].

At issue is the fact that Bolton simply does not respect the UN, and that he desires it's dismantling. If not completely destoyed, he desires it to be completely retooled in the expression of pure American military, social, political, economic, and ideologic interests. The problem Bolton h8a's have with Bolton's nomination is that he was nominated- which speaks to teh desire of The Administration to have these ends met. Bolton is a symbol of anti-internationalism and reason- he is an unforgiving, passive-agressive beast of a man; and his simple nomination is telling of The Administration's disregard for any of the UN's stated goals of international, disinterested intervention and problem solutions.

And so, through Bolton, we see The Administration's true colors [the stripes, as it were], and this is what we take offense to. We refuse to believe that the contemporary world bows to the pressure of any ideological power, and therefore we reject the nomination, and the absolutism of The Administration's stance.

Fortunately, Voinovich sees through them as well, rejecting the mandated party-agenda for what must be considered, contemplated, and understood as truly "right," that this man has no business in the UN, and his ideology has no business in our policies or our hearts.