Bloodless Coup

Bolton Before the Committee: Diffident and Mendacious

Fred Kaplan , Dave Meyer and Steve Clemons have reports on John Bolton's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today. They are definitely worth your time if you are interested in this matter since the "mainstream" press seems to be doing a pretty lame job of covering this event. Even NPR was talking about them in ways that made it seem that Democrats were just being partisan. There's MUCH more to it than that, and Republican senators Hagel and Chafee asked some tough questions too. If the the committee choose to really grill this nominee and bring in all the players from Bush's first term who could undermine his credibility, he should be easily defeated. But, even under the leadership of the usually respectable Dick Lugar, it appears unlikely that the committee will choose to do that. Still, we'll see. Carl Ford's testimony tomorrow certainly offers the possibility for more fireworks.