State Dept now says Bolton gave inaccurate answers

W.House gives strong signal on Bolton appointment

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050729/pl_nm/bush_bolton_dc

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House gave its strongest signal yet on Friday that President Bush will soon bypass the Senate and appoint John Bolton to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Senate Democrats have stalled the nomination of Bolton, a favorite of conservatives, over accusations he tried to manipulate intelligence and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views while the top U.S. diplomat for arms control.

Bush can bypass the Senate and give Bolton a "recess appointment" when the Senate begins its August recess this weekend. Bolton would be able to serve until January 2007, when a new Congress is sworn in.

Asked about the possibility of a recess appointment for Bolton, White House spokesman Scott McClellan gave a strong hint.

"We do need a permanent representative at the United Nations. This is a critical time and it's important to continue moving forward on comprehensive reform," McClellan said.

"Clearly John Bolton is someone who has enjoyed majority support from the United States Senate, but unfortunately Senate Democrats have taken the path of playing politics," he said.

In another hint, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told PBS' News Hour on Thursday night: "What we can't be is without leadership at the United Nations. ... I'm spending an awful lot of time these days preparing for the high-level meetings that are going to take place in September" on U.N. reforms.

A recess appointment would risk the wrath of the Senate at a time when Bush is pressing senators to support his nominee for Supreme Court justice, John Roberts. His confirmation hearings begin on Sept. 6.

A STATE DEPARTMENT REVERSAL

McClellan spoke a day after the State Department reversed itself and acknowledged that Bolton had given Congress inaccurate information when he written that he had not been questioned or provided information to jury or government investigations in the past five years.

At first, the State Department had insisted Bolton's answer was truthful.

But it later acknowledged that Bolton had he failed to tell lawmakers that he had been interviewed as part of a State Department-CIA joint investigation on intelligence lapses that led to the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.

"When Mr. Bolton completed his form during the Senate confirmation process he did not recall being interviewed by the State Department inspector general. Therefore his form as submitted was inaccurate in this regard and he will correct the form," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Officials have said Bolton was not interviewed in special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

In a subsequent letter to Bush, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record) said Bolton's admission was "too little, too late" and urged Bush to withdraw the nomination.

The White House has argued that Bolton should be given an up-or-down vote in the Senate but Democrats have blocked such a move.

In procedural votes in May and June, Democrats denied Republicans the 60 votes needed from the 100-member Senate to close debate on Bolton and move to a confirmation vote, which would require a simple majority.