Bolton - Take a lesson, Democrats

For those who did not catch the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on C-SPAN, it was truly compelling. The Voinovich Moment came out of nowhere and knocked the wind out of everybody in the room. I'll get back to that.

My favorite moment was when Barack Obama asked the chair, Richard Lugar, what mechanism would exist to investigate the charges against Bolton if the Republicans shut off debate and sent the nomination to the Senate floor. Watching Lugar grasp for a coherent answer was almost as bad as the time that reporter asked Bush if he could think of any mistakes he had made. You remember that one? Well, this wasn't quite that bad, but it wasn't much better.

Now, the Voinovich Moment. The New York Times account of what happened contains an important lesson for Democrats.

Until the defection, by Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio, the panel had appeared prepared to send the nomination to the Senate floor on a strict party-line vote. But Mr. Voinovich stunned other senators by announcing that more time was needed to explore accusations against Mr. Bolton.

"My conscience got me," he said after the stormy two-hour session. He said he had gone to the meeting planning to vote for Mr. Bolton, but changed his mind after hearing the case against the nominee made by Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, both Democrats.

The lesson is this: never, ever, EVER stop fighting these people. Ever.

I joined the C-SPAN webcast during Biden's rant. He breathed fire. He made it clear that John Bolton is unworthy of representing the United States at the United Nations. As impressive as his speech was, however, I assumed while I was watching it that it was an exercise in futility. The Republicans were determined to send this appalling nomination to the Senate floor for a vote. That meant it was a done deal, especially after Lincoln Chaffee endorsed the idea. I mean, if Democrats' favorite Republican isn't with you, who would be?

Who would have thought that the actual content of Biden's argument would have made the difference? Had he not bothered, the outcome might have been very different