Riveting

I don't think I've ever seen more exciting programming on C-SPAN; I'm watching the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's meeting on John Bolton's nomination to be US ambassador to the UN. It'll be broadcast again at 8 tonight on C-SPAN 2.

Some goodies:

"The position at the United Nations is not terribly important, I'll give you that. What Mr. Bolton did is." - Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT). Dodd questioned the wisdom of confirming Bolton, whose actions are likely largely to blame for the one-sidedness of US intelligence in justifying the war in Iraq, while at the same time working to rebuild US intelligence efforts and reestablish US credibility. Powerful.

Chairman. Lugar (R-IN), meanwhile, tried to cut off discussion half an hour into the meeting, claiming there'd been spirited debate. Sen Sarbanes (D-MD) shut this down, luckily.

"Every time Mr. Bolton tried to get someone fired, he was overruled." - Sen Biden (D-DE).

Regarding Bolton's lies about a subordinate having stolen government property, "Would you even hire a staff member who did that?"

... more awesomeness:

"I don't feel comfortable voting for Mr. Bolton" - Sen Voinovich (R-OH).

... the Washington Post has more.