The U.S. Senate could vote again this week to end debate and hold a final ballot on John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, even if there is not enough support to move to confirmation, Republicans said on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he would hold another procedural vote on Bolton, even if he lacked the 60 senators needed to move the nomination to final passage, if only "to demonstrate that the other side is unreasonably and irresponsibly filibustering this nominee."
The nomination of Bolton, an outspoken U.N. critic and a favorite of conservatives, has snagged on accusations that he tried to misuse U.S. intelligence and bullied analysts and other administration officials who did not agree with his hard-line views.
Democrats late last month delayed the nomination in a procedural vote, demanding the Bush administration give the Senate more information on Bolton's use of intelligence material in his post as top U.S. diplomat for arms control.
Two more votes needed
Fifty-eight senators back moving to a final vote on Bolton, two short of the 60 needed to end a procedural deadlock. Republicans are seeking support from two more Democrats.
If they get over the procedural hurdle, Republicans, who hold a 55-45 Senate majority, are confident they will have the simple majority to confirm Bolton.
They accuse Democrats of using the nomination as a political weapon against President George W. Bush, who has lobbied aggressively for Bolton and maintains he is the right choice to press for needed U.N. reforms.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, at a news conference with Frist, said Senate action was needed to "make the American people aware that this issue really needs to be resolved appropriately in an up or down vote."
Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said he hoped negotiations would continue between Senate Democrats and the White House on the additional information.
But, he said, "goal posts are shifting again and again and again" on requests by Democrats, and said the White House already has provided all the necessary material.
Democrats said the White House had refused all of their requests, even as they sought compromise.
Democrats want the administration to turn over e-mails and other internal communications leading up to testimony Bolton gave Congress on Syria's weapons. They also want some access to classified National Security Agency intercepts sought by Bolton that contain the names of Americans.
"Anyone who doesn't recognize we've moved it closer to them is looking through the wrong end of the telescope," said Norm Kurz, spokesman for Joseph Biden of Delaware, top Senate Foreign Relations Democrat.
