John Bolton Comes to Town
So is anyone here planning on going to the Bolton thing tomorrow? We picked up some tickets today around 11 AM and they were running out fast. It will be carried via the web and you can also subscribe to the UNL podcast which will very likely have the speech as well. I hate to admit, as someone who watches a lot of CSPAN, I have been following the whole Bolton thing closely, particularly the drama in our Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year (the Chuckster is second highest ranking Republican by the way). I also do not believe his nomination is a good idea.
I do not know what the format of the talk will be. Though I doubt it will be anything close to the earlier hearings this year when Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) really pressed him (which surprised a whole lot of people). The hearings scheduled for today were postponed for some reason.
About the series in general, its also nice to see that one of the speakers this year actually is not originally from the USA (Azar Nafisi). I have been wondering about this for the past few years. You’d think that a high profile series “on world issues” might actually have people from other countries. So they finally were able to bring someone in.
By the way the picture above is by the other John Bolton – the graphic artist.
The Comments
Dave K September 7, 2006 at 6:59pm
The only people that Chafee’s grilling of Bolton surprised are the few people left who don’t know Chafee is a liberal. Hagel wavered on Bolton for a while so that he could get on Meet the Press and the MSNBC shows. Last I heard, he fully supports Bolton’s nomination. That may have changed by now though.
They have had a couple notable people from outside the US speak for this lecture series. Gorbachev came, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I’m pretty sure they were here for that lecture series. I’m glad to see someone that represents my points of view coming in. I wish I could go and hear him talk.
Mr. T September 7, 2006 at 7:47pm
Dave K - Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion on the allegations that Bolton tried to get an intelligence analyst fired because he disagreed with the WMD in Irag theory? From a wider policy perspective, and given other recent intelligence failures - is this someone who should be promoted to a position of ambassador to the UN?
BTW you may be able to still get tickets. I believe the ticket office opens at 11 tomorrow. But when I went there today the person told me few were available.
Dave K September 7, 2006 at 8:06pm
How does one form an opinion of an allegation? Do you want me to say whether I believe the allegations are true or false? I haven’t the slightest clue. I do know Bolton’s stance on issues regarding the UN, and that is why I support him.
Getting the tickets isn’t my problem, it’s having the time to go. Tomorrow is about the worst possible day out of the last 6 months to try to go to something like this.
Mr. T September 8, 2006 at 7:27pm
By the way, I’ll save you the trouble of watching the video or even downloading and listening to the podcast - Bolton’s talk was pretty horrible and dreadfully boring today, and during the Q+A (when people were expecting some sparks) he made some really off the wall remarks that were pretty uncharacteristic.
Perhaps his mind is elsewhere...I wonder if there is any truth to the recent rumors that broke later today (i.e. his confirmation is headed for the toilet, see hereand here).