Democrats made a last-ditch effort on Thursday to stall the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations while Republicans pressed ahead for a Senate vote on President George W. Bush's contentious nominee. In what could be the final day of senators' lengthy consideration of Bolton, Republicans focused their ire on the United Nations and said that the blunt Bolton was the right person to reform it. Democrats argued there was evidence that Bolton, the top U.S. diplomat for arms control, tried to exaggerate intelligence assessments of the weapons capacity of several countries, bullied subordinates, and was temperamentally unsuited to the sensitive diplomatic post. "That this individual who engaged in such reprehensible behavior ... should be given the position of U.N. ambassador, to represent the United States at this critical hour, I think is a massive mistake," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. But Florida Republican Mel Martinez complained that Bolton's record "has been trashed repeatedly, oftentimes with scant little evidence," and said it is "in our national interest sometimes to have direct blunt-speaking people." --More 2326 Local Time 2026 GMT
