Thou shalt not kill.

Sadly, it applies to me too. I have an overwhelming urge to send the Republican senators vicious mail about their act of rubber-stamping cowardice. Then again, I suppose having at least some Senators realize something called a conscience is a big improvement.

[Foreign Relations] Committee Sends Bolton Vote to Senate (Washington Post)

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today sent to the full Senate President Bush's controversial nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, but the panel withheld a favorable recommendation at the urging of a key Republican member.

In a straight party-line vote, the committee voted 10-8 to forward the nomination without a recommendation after more than five hours of debate.

The unusual move came at the suggestion of Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), who voiced opposition this morning to nomination of Bolton but said he deserved an "up-or-down vote" on the Senate floor....

Other Republicans came to Bolton's defense, saying the case against him was overblown. As the hearing ended, committee chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said he was taking Voinovich's advice and that "the vote will be to report the nomination without recommendation." ...

Once the nomination reaches the floor, it is likely to be approved, since the Democrats are unlikely to be able to attract enough Republican defectors to defeat a choice still strongly backed by President Bush, Senate sources said.

If only ya'll could've heard my frustrated/irritated exclamation... I had so much hope. To me, there was more to this nomination than just John Bolton. It was about my faith in the partisan committee system. I have to laud Senator Voinovich for at least doing what others were too afraid to do: think for himself. I'm very upset that he couldn't muster up enough of that said courage to vote AGAINST him, which would've led to a deadlocked committee, but I'm trying not to blame him. In fact, if he had at least one Republican colleague by his side, it would've been feasible for him to not mistake the President's word as the Word of God. If his office will accept letters or emails from non-Ohio residents, I think I'll send him a thank you letter and also ask him to finally follow through with his personal judgement and vote "no" on Bolton.

Senator George Voinovich (R-OH)

Transcript: Voinovich Makes the Case Against Bolton (ThinkProgress)

After great thought and consideration, I have based my decision on what I think is the bigger picture. Frankly, there is a particular concern that I have about this nomination, and it involves the big picture of U.S. public diplomacy.

It was not long ago when America’s love of freedom was a force of inspiration to the world and America was admired for its democracy, generosity and its willingness to help others in need of protection. Today, the United States is criticized for what the world calls arrogance, unilateralism and for failing to listen and to seek the support of its friends and allies. There has been a drastic change in the attitude of our friends and allies in such organizations as the United Nations and NATO and in the countries of leaders that we need to rely upon for help....

We will face more difficulties in conducting the war on terrorism, promoting peace and stability worldwide and building democracies without the help from our friends to share the responsibilities, leadership and costs.To achieve these objectives, public diplomacy must once again be of high importance. If we cannot win over the hearts and minds of the world community and work together as a team, our goals will be more difficult to achieve. Additionally, we will be unable to reduce the burden on our own resources. The most important of these resources are the human resources, the lives of the men and women of our armed forces, who are leaving their families every day to serve their country overseas....

But what message are we sending to the world community when in the same breath we have sought to appoint an ambassador to the United Nations who himself has been accused of being arrogant, of not listening to his friends, of acting unilaterally, of bullying those who do not have the ability to properly defend themselves? These are the very characteristics that we’re trying to dispel in the world community.

We must understand that next to the president, the vice president, secretary of state, the next most important, prominent public diplomat is our ambassador to the United Nations. It is my concern that the confirmation of John Bolton would send a contradictory and negative message to the world community about U.S. intentions. I’m afraid that his confirmation will tell the world that we’re not dedicated to repairing our relationship or working as a team, but that we believe only someone with sharp elbows can deal properly with the international community.....

When discussing all these concerns with Secretary Rice, John Bolton’s propensity to get off message, his lack of interpersonal skills, his tendency to abuse others who disagree with him, I was informed by the secretary of state that she understood all these things and in spite of them still feels that John Bolton is the best choice and that she would be in frequent communication with him and he would be closely supervised. My private thought at the time, and I should have expressed it to her, is: Why in the world would you want to send somebody up to the U.N. that has to be supervised? .....

Additionally, I wanted to note my concern that Colin Powell, the person to whom Mr. Bolton answered to over the last four years, was conspicuously absent from a letter signed by former secretaries of state recommending Mr. Bolton’s confirmation* ......

Mr. Chairman, I have to say that after poring over the hundreds of pages of testimony and – you know, I wasn’t here for those hearings, but I did my penance, I read all of it – I believe that John Bolton would have been fired if he’d worked for a major corporation. This is not the behavior of a true leader who upholds the kind of democracy that President Bush is seeking to promote globally. This is not the behavior that should be endorsed as the face of the United States to the world community and the United Nations. Rather, Mr. Chairman, it is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.....

After hours of deliberation, telephone calls, personal conversations, reading hundreds of pages of transcripts and asking for guidance from above, I have come to the determination that the United States can do better than John Bolton.....

But, Mr. Chairman [Senator Lugar], I really don’t believe he’s the best man that we can send to the United Nations.

My comment on that ThinkProgress piece:

I’m angry about the nomination… but I really couldn’t expect Senator Voinovich to do that to himself. I can imagine the pressure the top Repugs must have been putting on him these last weeks. I’m dissapointed, because he could have just voted “no", but I guess I’ll have to accept the fact that the best we’ll get out of this partisan system is occasional moments of brilliant conscientiousness.