Have you read anything about the Hatred against Bolton? They are trying to Bork him for sure...What is with the turn coat Republicans??? We need to get them out of office...we have the votes, but the Republicans change the count..
Media Ignore Bolton Critic's Tie to "Mothers
Opposed to Bush"
No doubting a Bolton critic? Bob Schieffer on Wednesday's CBS Evening News and Katie Couric on Thursday morning's Today show both passed along the latest charge leveled against John Bolton, the President's nominee for Ambassador to the United Nations, that he threw a tirade against a woman while both were in Moscow in 1994. But neither bothered to tell viewers that the woman, Melody Townsel, who claimed that Bolton was "behaving like a madman," is an anti-Bush activist and the founder of the Dallas chapter of "Mothers Opposed to Bush" or MOB.
[The MRC's Rich Noyes submitted this article for CyberAlert.]
Thursday morning on FNC's Fox & Friends, the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes revealed how he had interviewed Townsel's former boss: "She complained to him often about things going wrong under the contract over there, in one of those former Soviet republics, never mentioned this about John Bolton before." Naturally, neither CBS nor NBC mentioned that fact as they painted Bolton as on the defensive.
CBS's Schieffer at least noted that Townsel was a Democrat, although he concealed the activism that she has employed against the President. NBC's Couric didn't even mention that, as she added Townsel's claims to the list of liberal complaints against Bolton that she ticked off on April 21 to Tim Russert:
"He was already quite unpopular in some quarters for some of the disparaging comments he made about the United Nations. And now he faces allegations of trying to have a lower level official who challenged him, removed. He also faces allegations from a woman who claims that he threatened her and spread rumors about her in some incident back in 1994. The Senate Foreign Relations committee has postponed the vote on his confirmation. Is his nomination in big trouble, Tim?"
Maybe Bolton's problem is that Senators are reacting to incomplete and misleading reports in the media.
On Wednesday's Special Report, FNC's Brit Hume noted that a number of news organizations had relayed the latest allegation without noting the partisan nature of the person making them:
"We told you earlier this week that Texas businesswoman Melody Townsel, who has accused prospective U.N. Ambassador John Bolton of chasing her through a Moscow Hotel ten years ago, quote, 'behaving like a madman,' is a self-described liberal Democrat and the founder of the Dallas chapter of 'Mothers Opposing Bush.' But you would never find that out from reading today's accounts of her charges against Bolton in some major media outlets. The Washington Post never mentions Townsel's partisan connections in its front-page story on the Bolton nomination. Neither did the AP, nor Reuters, nor The Los Angeles Times."
Indeed, the April 20 Washington Post carried a front-page story by reporters Charles Babington and Dafna Linzer that detailed Townsel's charges against Bolton, which were cited by Senate Democrats as a reason to deny Bolton the ambassadorship. Instead of presenting her as a disgruntled partisan, the Post touted her insistence that "no one asked me to send the letter, but when I saw he was nominated, I knew I had to share my experiences."
An excerpt from the Post article:
[Senator Joseph] Biden [the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs committee] said committee aides recently heard from a person who corroborated a woman's claim -- raised after Bolton testified last week -- that Bolton, then working as a private lawyer, had chased her through a Moscow hotel in 1994, thrown things at her and falsely claimed to U.S. aid officials that she had misused funds and might go to jail. Melody Townsel of Dallas said in a letter to the committee that Bolton "put me through hell" when he represented a firm that was at odds with her client in a USAID project in Kyrgyzstan. Biden taunted GOP members pressing for a vote yesterday on Bolton's nomination, saying, "I guess you don't want to hear about that."
Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said members had enough information to vote and suggested Democrats were stalling in hopes of thwarting Bolton. "I wasn't born yesterday," he said....
Without naming Townsel, Biden quoted the charges she made in her "open letter" to the committee, which was released last weekend. After her client complained about the performance of the Kyrgyzstan project's chief contractor -- which hired Bolton as its lawyer -- she wrote: "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." Back in Kyrgyzstan, she said, Bolton told USAID officials "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....His behavior back in 1994 wasn't just unforgivable, it was pathological."
Townsel, who runs a public relations firm in Dallas, said in an interview yesterday that "no one asked me to send the letter, but when I saw he was nominated, I knew I had to share my experiences."
END of Excerpt
For the article in full: www.washingtonpost.com
Thursday morning's Washington Post story by Babington and Jim VandeHei also included no discussion of Townsel's background, but repeated the charges against Bolton in an analysis of his chances for confirmation:
"Allegations leveled at Bolton include accusations that he tried to have several lower-level government officials fired or reassigned after they challenged him on assertions about various nations or other matters. Also, a Dallas woman says that in 1994 -- when Bolton was a private lawyer for a firm at odds with her client over a contract -- Bolton chased her through a Moscow hotel, threw things at her, threatened her and spread false rumors about her to U.S. officials overseeing the government-backed project in Kyrgyzstan."
Now, back to Wednesday's (April 20) CBS Evening News. The MRC's Brian Boyd transcribed the lengthy piece read by anchor Bob Schieffer: "John Bolton, President Bush's nominee to be the Ambassador to the United Nations, has run into some new trouble on Capitol Hill. The members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have postponed a vote on whether he should be confirmed. Committee Democrats had already come out against him because of his past statements questioning the need for the United Nations. Now, some Republicans on the committee are having some second thoughts after a new allegation surfaced."
Schieffer, noting only that Townsel was "a Democrat" detailed her unproved charge: "An allegation made by Melody Townsel, a Democrat and former USAid contractor. She told the committee that in 1994, while a private citizen, Bolton displayed what she called ‘pathological' behavior toward her during a trip to Russia for a U.S. relief effort. Townsel says he quote [text on screen], ‘chased me through the halls of a Russian hotel, throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door and, generally, behaving like a madman. 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.'"
The MRC's Geoff Dickens noted that on NBC's Today show on Thursday, co-host Katie Couric and Meet the Press host Tim Russert ran though the latest developments surrounding both House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, then got around to Bolton.
Couric told Russert: "Let's move on, if we could Tim, because to the other big controversy which is the nomination of, of UN ambassador John Bolton. He was already quite unpopular in some quarters for some of the disparaging comments he made about the United Nations. And now he faces allegations of trying to have a lower level official who challenged him, removed. He also faces allegations from a woman who claims that he threatened her and spread rumors about her in some incident back in 1994. The Senate Foreign Relations committee has postponed the vote on his confirmation. Is his nomination in big trouble, Tim? What's going on there?"
Russert affirmed: "Yeah it's in trouble and here's why Katie. Again in the committee there are ten Republicans, eight Democrats. Right now that nomination could not be voted out of committee. If it was it would go to the floor without a recommendation which can be almost fatal when it comes to a full vote before the Senate. The problem is that several Republican senators, Katie, by my count at least four have deep, deep reservations about Mr. Bolton. They believe that at the United Nations we're gonna need someone who can present the case to the world about intelligence data regarding North Korea and Iran and that in the past Mr. Bolton has in fact said to lower employees, 'Give me the information, the data I want or I will fire you.'"
Couric helpfully chimed in: "'That supports my position,' basically."
Russert: "That, that's the allegation. He as denied it but there is at least one Republican, Mr. Chafee, who has said, 'I may not vote for him.' George Voinovich of Ohio stunned Washington the other day Katie because he surprised everybody saying, 'My conscience got to me. I want to slow down this nomination.'"
Couric wondered: "So basically do you think it's over for John Bolton?"
Russert wouldn't go that far: "Well the next three weeks are critical. The President's standing by him but if more information comes out it's a drip, drip, drip. John McCain said, 'a death by a thousand cuts,' although he supports Mr. Bolton. It's anyone's guess right now but the nomination is far from certain."
On Thursday morning's Fox & Friends, MRC's Megan McCormack found, the Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes, outlined one factual problem with the newest anti-Bolton charge that neither CBS nor NBC bothered to reveal, namely that while Townsel seems to have complained about a lot of things when she was in Russia, Bolton wasn't one of them.
At about 8:15am EDT, co-host Steve Doocy asked Barnes about the new complaint: "So now there's this allegation, this woman who back in the '90s, John Bolton went screaming after her and in some-"
Co-host Brian Kilmeade interjected: "Called her fat and gay."
Doocy resumed: "-said she was fat, she stole money, she might be gay. It's just one woman who's got an ax to grind, clearly, she's part of ‘Moms Opposing Bush.' Is this going to derail that guy?"
Barnes: "Well, I don't think that is. Among other things I -- yesterday I talked to the guy who had hired her, who is a Republican, who had hired her initially, and she complained to him often about things going wrong under the contract over there, in one of those former Soviet republics, never mentioned this about John Bolton before. It just sort of popped up now that he's nominated to be UN ambassador. Look, if that serious -- if the committee thinks that's a serious charge, they need to bring the woman to Washington and have her testify. I suspect they won't do that."
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