He had said earlier that talks with Democrats had been exhausted. Lunch with President Bush changed his mind.
By Associated Press
Published June 22, 2005
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Tuesday that he would keep pressing for a vote on embattled U.N. nominee John Bolton's confirmation after President Bush insisted that throwing in the towel was not an option.
Hours earlier, Frist, R-Tenn., told reporters he would not schedule another vote on Bolton "at this juncture," having lost two since May at the hands of Democrats.
Democrats are saying they need more information from the Bush administration on Bolton's tenure as the State Department's arms control chief before allowing his nomination to advance to a final vote.
Barring a last-minute compromise, Bolton's hopes for the U.N. job appear to hinge on whether the president will go around lawmakers and appoint him to the post temporarily. The White House has left open that possibility, and White House press secretary Scott McClellan on Tuesday ruled out another option - withdrawing Bolton's nomination.
Six months into his final term in office, Bush is struggling to avoid the perception of a lame duck at a time when his proposal for revamping Social Security has made little progress and some lawmakers are calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq. Frist has suffered defeats in recent weeks in fights over Bush's judicial appointments and earlier attempts to confirm Bolton.
For their part, fellow Senate Republicans were split over whether the president should use a recess appointment to put Bolton in place when lawmakers leave Washington over the July 4 holiday.
Before leaving the Capitol for a lunch with the president, Frist told reporters the president must decide the next move on Bolton as he had exhausted his efforts to negotiate with Democrats and settle the standoff.
"At this juncture, we have to go back to the president and see what the decision he's going to make is," Frist said.
He said scheduling a third vote to advance the nomination would be fruitless.
At the lunch, the president stood by his nominee, according to lawmakers who attended. "He just said he supported Bolton and wanted him confirmed," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said.
In the White House driveway after the lunch, Frist said, "The president made it very clear that he expects an up-or-down vote. "He strongly supports John Bolton, as we know, and he asked that we continue to work. And we'll continue to work," Frist said.
Bush has said that Bolton, with a history of blunt talk and skepticism about the U.N.'s power, would be ideally suited to lead an effort to overhaul the world body's bureaucracy and make it more accountable. Critics say Bolton, who has been accused of mistreating subordinates, would hurt U.S. efforts to work with the U.N. and other countries.
Democrats have held up the nomination by demanding that the administration check a list of 36 U.S. officials against names in secret national security intercepts that Bolton requested and received. They also want documents related to the preparation of testimony that Bolton planned to deliver - but ultimately never gave - in the House in July 2003 about Syria's weapons capability.
On Monday, Democrats defeated a GOP effort to force a final vote on Bolton. A day later, a few Senate Republicans advocated that the president use his power to appoint Bolton during an upcoming congressional break. Such an appointment would last only through the next one-year session of Congress - in Bolton's case until January 2007.
