Chris Dodd discusses John Bolton's nomination to be UN Envoy on "Meet the Press"
Transcript for May 1
Guests: Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff; Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.
NBC News
Updated: 11:00 a.m. ET May 1, 2005
[Excerpt]
SEN. DODD: Well, the issue is a simple one. It's the first question that Dick Lugar asked John Bolton when he was before the Senate Foreign Relations--it was the first question I've asked. The only issue I'm really interested in, in terms of this nomination: Did John Bolton threaten the jobs of intelligence analysts because he did not like the intelligence he was getting to support a speech or a series of policy positions he wanted to take? Eight current or former members of the Bush administration, career people at the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency--eight of them--including his own chief of staff, said that Mr. Bolton tried to fire these intelligence analysts.
To me, giving to all we've been through in the last several years--setting up and restructuring with the new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, all of the moving the pieces around to make sure that we will not have the same kind of mistakes that occurred with intelligence being gathered and used prior to the invasion of Iraq--it seems to me that if you break down this wall, this wall that should exist between policy-setters and intelligence analysts--if that wall breaks down--that's not to suggest you could argue with them, you could disagree with them, you could be blunt with them--but if you threaten their jobs, threaten to fire them, then I think the credibility of American intelligence suffers. And if you did that, as he did--and it's not debatable whether he did or not; everyone will tell you he did--then I think he's disqualified, in my view.
And the very point that my friend here is making about sending John Bolton to the United Nations, I think, gets compromised by what he's done. Sending someone up to reform the United Nations who has the reputation factually of having tried to skewer and cook the books when it comes to intelligence data is not going to be able, in my view, to convince our allies or others around the world to support us on key positions. There are plenty of conservative, blunt-speaking Republicans who I know could full well fulfill this job. It need not be John Bolton.
MR. RUSSERT: Will he be blocked in committee?
SEN. DODD: I don't know. Listen, there are three or four members of the committee who've expressed reservations, and as my friend George--we are friends in this. I trust my colleagues. They're watching. They're looking at this information. They'll decide whether or not this rises to the level I think it does. And if it does and they turn him down, it would be almost unprecedented for the committee to take a negative vote in the committee and insist that that vote go to the floor of the Senate.
