Inside Politics

Bolton on hold

A Senate committee delayed until next week a vote on John R. Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after Democrats asked for more time.

Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee want to question State Department officials in writing, said Andy Fisher, spokesman for the committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican. Committee Democrats strongly oppose the nomination of Mr. Bolton, who is now undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

Putting off a vote that had been tentatively planned for today gives Democrats more time to try persuading a liberal Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, to defect to their side, the Associated Press reports. Mr. Chafee has said he is inclined to vote for Mr. Bolton, but has not said he definitely would support confirmation.

All in the family

Rep. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, used campaign donations to pay his wife and stepdaughter more than $150,000 for campaign-related work since 2000, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Jane O’Meara Sanders, his wife, received $91,020 between 2002 and 2004 for consultation and for negotiating the purchase of television and radio time slots for Mr. Sanders’ advertisements, according to records and interviews.

Approximately $61,000 of that was “pass-through” money that was used to pay media outlets for advertising time, Mrs. Sanders said in an interview with Evan Lehmann of the MediaNews Group Washington Bureau, whose report appeared in yesterday’s Bennington (Vt.) Banner. The rest, about $30,000, she kept as payment for her services, she said.

Carina Driscoll, daughter to Mrs. O’Meara Sanders and stepdaughter to the lawmaker, earned $65,002 in wages between 2000 and 2004, campaign records show.

Mrs. Driscoll, a former state legislator, served as Mr. Sanders’ campaign manager in 2000, his fundraiser and office manager in 2003 and his database manager in 2004, according to Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’ chief of staff.

“Both of them are regarded as people who are knowledgeable about Vermont politics,” Mr. Weaver said Tuesday. “They earned every penny they got.”

No laws prohibit candidates from paying family members for campaign work, but a New York Times report last week suggested that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had done something scandalous by paying his wife and daughter for political duties.

Jim Barrett, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, remarked, “It’s the standard hypocrisy from the left. When a Republican does it, it’s inappropriate and front-page news. But now it turns out, our own Bernie Sanders has been doing it for a long time.”

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