Posted on 04/20/2005 8:32:45 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Subject:
Please Reject Bolton Nomination
To:
Sen. Richard Lugar
April 17, 2005
Horrifying, Personal John Bolton Story
By Melody Townsel
Dailykos.com
Friday 15 April 2005
Melody Townsel was stationed in Kyrgyzstan on a US AID project. During her stay there, she became embroiled in a controversy in which John Bolton was a key player. She described the incident in a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members who are reviewing the Bolton nomination.
Here's the entire text of her letter:
Dear Sir:
I'm writing to urge you to consider blocking in committee the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the UN.
In the late summer of 1994, I worked as the subcontracted leader of a US AID project in Kyrgyzstan officially awarded to a HUB primary contractor. My own employer was Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, and I reported directly to Republican leader Charlie Black.
After months of incompetence, poor contract performance, inadequate in-country funding, and a general lack of interest or support in our work from the prime contractor, I was forced to make US AID officials aware of the prime contractor's poor performance.
I flew from Kyrgyzstan to Moscow to meet with other Black Manafort employees who were leading or subcontracted to other US AID projects. While there, I met with US AID officials and expressed my concerns about the project - chief among them, the prime contractor's inability to keep enough cash in country to allow us to pay bills, which directly resulted in armed threats by Kyrgyz contractors to me and my staff.
Within hours of sending a letter to US AID officials outlining my concerns, I met John Bolton, whom the prime contractor hired as legal counsel to represent them to US AID. And, so, within hours of dispatching that letter, my hell began.
Mr. Bolton proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel - throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door and, generally, behaving like a madman. For nearly two weeks, while I awaited fresh direction from my company and from US AID, John Bolton hounded me in such an appalling way that I eventually retreated to my hotel room and stayed there. Mr. Bolton, of course, then routinely visited me there to pound on the door and shout threats.
When US AID asked me to return to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in advance of assuming leadership of a project in Kazakstan, I returned to my project to find that John Bolton had proceeded me by two days. Why? To meet with every other AID team leader as well as US foreign-service officials in Bishkek, claiming that I was under investigation for misuse of funds and likely was facing jail time. As US AID can confirm, nothing was further from the truth.
He indicated to key employees of or contractors to State that, based on his discussions with investigatory officials, I was headed for federal prison and, if they refused to cooperate with either him or the prime contractor's replacement team leader, they, too, would find themselves the subjects of federal investigation. As a further aside, he made unconscionable comments about my weight, my wardrobe and, with a couple of team leaders, my sexuality, hinting that I was a lesbian (for the record, I'm not).
When I resurfaced in Kyrgyzstan, I learned that he had done such a convincing job of smearing me that it took me weeks - with the direct intervention of US AID officials - to limit the damage. In fact, it was only US AID's appoinment of me as a project leader in Almaty, Kazakstan that largely put paid to the rumors Mr. Bolton maliciously circulated.
As a maligned whistleblower, I've learned firsthand the lengths Mr. Bolton will go to accomplish any goal he sets for himself. Truth flew out the window. Decency flew out the window. In his bid to smear me and promote the interests of his client, he went straight for the low road and stayed there.
John Bolton put me through hell - and he did everything he could to intimidate, malign and threaten not just me, but anybody unwilling to go along with his version of events. His behavior back in 1994 wasn't just unforgivable, it was pathological.
I cannot believe that this is a man being seriously considered for any diplomatic position, let alone such a critical posting to the UN. Others you may call before your committee will be able to speak better to his stated dislike for and objection to stated UN goals. I write you to speak about the very character of the man.
It took me years to get over Mr. Bolton's actions in that Moscow hotel in 1994, his intensely personal attacks and his shocking attempts to malign my character.
I urge you from the bottom of my heart to use your ability to block Mr. Bolton's nomination in committee.
Respectfully yours,
Melody Townsel
Walnut Creek , CA
What in the hell is our side doing?
Good luck, he just got reelected in November. He's not up again until Nov, 2010. He's going to be a bigger pain than Specter
That is very true, he had the votes at 3:30
And why is it that he's skipping work so much?
Ok here is a little disreprency
From USA Today:
Respectfully yours,
Melody Townsel
Walnut Creek , CA
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
From Anti Bush Blog:
It took me years to get over Mr. Bolton's actions in that Moscow hotel in 1994, his intensely personal attacks and his shocking attempts to malign my character.
I urge you from the bottom of my heart to use your ability to block Mr. Bolton's nomination in committee.
Respectfully yours,
Melody Townsel
Dallas, TX 75208
I've never seen anything like what happened in that committee hearing. Never.
Not if we win a few more seats in '06, Voinovich will either tow the line or be sidelined. Right now we have 4 or 5 RINO Senators who know they have some influence, with 2 or more seats in the next Congress will render them toothless
What's that about?
We should get out the tapes of the Bork hearings and study up
They are sending us conservatives a message--namely that they, not us, run the party.
That was, I think, the point of J. Danforth's comments a few weeks back. Almost everything that has happened in the Senate since then seems to confirm what he said.
The Bolton nomination fiasco is not about Bolton. It's about power politics and control of the party. It's about judges. It's about who gets to set the agenda.
And bring a Coke can; I'm sure that's coming.
Beautiful. Bush should just say that he's concerned about the Dem's obsession with filibusters, and he doesn't want the Senate to be shut down and "we'll just agree to disagree."
The truth is that the Republicans have just chickened out......(Run Away!!!!Run Away!!!! is their motto)
redrock
Bingo!!! Let's do it!!!.
Saw this on AmSpectator online
Botching Bolton
By The Prowler
Published 4/21/2005 12:09:59 AM
The White House was scrambling Tuesday night after the disastrous Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting held Tuesday afternoon to discuss voting out the U.N. ambassador nomination of John Bolton. Ultimately, Democrats prevailed, having the vote delayed for at least three weeks.
And the aftermath, says a Foreign Relations Committee staffer, is that committee chairman Richard Lugar on Wednesday morning broached the subject of pulling back the nomination with White House officials and the State Department.
"We don't have Voinovich, we don't have Hagel, and in the end we probably don't have Chafee if the other two give him cover," says a Senate leadership staffer. "I don't see how we bring that vote up. We're in for a bumpy ride."
"We're going to be seeing leaks for the next three weeks from Democrats on the committee and their various advocates just beating on Bolton at every turn," says the Foreign Relations Committee staffer. "We just don't have anything to combat it, and Lugar is furious that the White House is letting this happen without any vocal defense from administration people. They are making the chairman look weak and indecisive."
Lugar has been doing that pretty much on his own, without anyone's help, for the past month on the Bolton nomination. On Tuesday, Lugar sat stone-faced at the table, rarely attempting to push back against the Democratic onslaught on Bolton's character.
Lugar's inaction is in part due to his anger over Bolton's written responses, or lack there of, to questions submitted by Democrats. In some cases, according to the staffer, Bolton simply ignored the questions or wrote responses that did not address specific points the Democrats were seeking
"Bolton was nonresponsive in some of those questions," says the staffer, who considers himself a moderate Republican. "When you're answering questions at a hearing, it's one thing to be able to duck an issue. But in writing, when you leave the answer space blank, it's pretty obvious where you are coming from."
Lugar has badly misplayed the Bolton nomination process, from initially voicing doubts about Bolton -- for which the White House took him to the woodshed -- to the Tuesday televised debacle that gave Democrats an opportunity to pound away on Bolton. Republican leadership staff was miffed that Lugar was apparently aware of the Democrats' ammunition against Bolton, but chose not to share it with them prior to the Tuesday committee meeting, this, after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had cleared the decks for a committee vote.
"It isn't clear that any of the material the Democrats are throwing around has a lot of traction, but even if it doesn't the damage is done," says a Republican staffer on another Senate committee. "But if Foreign Relations Democratic staff is anything like mine, then Bolton probably can't survive three weeks of what surely will be daily leaks against his character. There has to be some push back, and Lugar and Hagel clearly aren't capable of doing that."
On Wednesday morning, White House congressional liaisons attempted to reach out to Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich, who had previously met with Bolton privately and had told White House and State Department handlers that he was supportive of the nomination. But Voinovich wouldn't make himself available, a bad sign.
If Bolton were to withdraw, it would be a terrible loss for the White House, not to mention conservatives. But even worse would be what such a loss might portend across the board for Republicans.
"On everything from Social Security to DeLay to Bolton, you get the sense that we're fraying at the seams, perhaps more than fraying," says a Republican lobbyist. "We knew the State Department was a snake pit. We knew it was full of Democrats ready to attack a conservative. Yet everyone seems surprised that this happened. You see the same kind of shell shocked look when you talk to a White House staffer about Social Security or immigration policy. This isn't good, and we need to fix it quick."
I will guarantee you that neither Condi, nor Bush, will pull this Nomination over these bogus charges
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