Train wreck

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"I just hope these people of Washington, D.C., are prepared to handle this. It's going to be a train wreck." Those words -- by renowned political sage Mike Tyson -- are an apt description of what has befallen Bush administration appointees in the U.S. Senate. Though the former heavyweight champion's comment was actually a forecast of his June 11 fight with Kevin McBride at the MCI Center, it also applies to the current White House-Capitol Hill impasse. As a result, President Bush's very ambitious second-term agenda is on the ropes.

Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was to vote on the nomination of Undersecretary of State John Bolton to become our ambassador to the United Nations. It didn't happen. Instead, Ohio Sen. George ("I'm a 'maverick' too") Voinovich decided he needed to learn more about Mr. Bolton, whose long and distinguished career of public service is being savaged by the so-called mainstream media, petty bureaucrats and liberal Bush-bashers.

On the same day Mr. Voinovich said, "I've heard enough today that I don't feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton," North Carolina's Sen. Elizabeth Dole, chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, announced a new Web site. She pledges those who visit www.GOPSenators.com can "track Democrat obstruction of the president's judicial nominees." The site also features a "recently released Web video highlighting the Democrat partisan obstruction." Of course Mr. Voinovich won't appear in the video: He's a Republican. But with such Republicans, who needs Democrats?

Therein lies the problem for Mr. Bolton -- and anyone else willing to accept an appointment from this administration. Vicious assaults and legislative obstruction have long been key parts of the liberal Democrat agenda. But lack of support from the Republican majority has turned confirmations into ordeals by fire. For all the Republican talk about a "nuclear option" to stop filibusters on stalled judicial nominees, the GOP has been firing blanks from water pistols while liberal Democrats beat White House nominees like rented mules.

It is easy to blame liberal Democrats for derailing judicial nominees, because it's true. But it seems no one is at the controls of the Republican locomotive as it heads down the track toward the train wreck. Some Republicans who have noticed the disarray blame Karl Rove or Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. But President Bush is supposed to be the engineer. An old axiom from his flying days is appropriate: "The passengers and crew may be in the same predicament, but the pilot always arrives first at the crash site."

From all accounts the White House -- nearly mute throughout the Democrat smear-campaign against Mr. Bolton -- was completely blindsided by the Voinovich pronouncement. Until then, everyone's attention was on Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island's liberal Republican. Mr. Chafee, apparently grateful for getting off the hook, gleefully said, "The dynamic has changed. ... A lot of reservations surfaced today. It's a new day."

Is it? The new "reservations" cited by Messrs. Voinovich and Chafee are unfounded charges by a Melody Townsel. She claims in a letter to the committee Mr. Bolton chased her through a hotel hall 10 years ago, throwing things at her and "genuinely behaving like a madman." There are no witnesses, no hotel record of disruption or a clean-up crew needed. No one heard him yelling or pounding on her door. She has none of the "intimidating letters" she claims he slipped under her door. She didn't call security or lodge a complaint with the State Department at the time nor bring any of this up when Mr. Bolton was being confirmed as undersecretary of state.

And this bars Mr. Bolton from serving as our ambassador at the U.N.? Most Americans hope the hard-nosed, pro-American Mr. Bolton really is as tough as depicted. Last week it was revealed two investigators probing the Oil for Food corruption scandal resigned because the Volcker Commission is going soft on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The United Nations has done nothing to lock up child rapists among its African "peacekeepers." Shouldn't someone chase Benon Sevan and Mr. Annan down the halls of the big blue building on Turtle Bay?

Apparently none of the mal- and misfeasance at the United Nations is urgent enough to expedite Mr. Bolton's confirmation. He is just too mean. If that's a disqualifier, Gen. Pete Pace better rethink accepting his nomination as the first Marine chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Without a doubt, the Senate will be able to produce someone whom -- horror of horrors -- he yelled at during his 37 years of service.

The president's very ambitious plans for his second term cannot be accomplished if his appointees aren't confirmed. That means pushing Capitol Hill Republicans back on track is an urgent priority. I'm well aware from personal experience that getting Republicans to head in the same direction is much like herding cats. But Mr. Bush still must try -- even if he has to bring a cattle prod from his Texas ranch.

After his re-election, President Bush declared, "I earned capital in the campaign... and now I intend to spend it." He needs to spend some now to bring his party in line.

For the obstructionist solons on Capitol Hill, Mike Tyson is an unlikely source of political advice. But they might want to heed another comment about his upcoming bout: "I don't get into the stare-downs and the talking trash.... I don't want to punch a guy in the face before the fight starts."

Oliver North is a nationally syndicated columnist and founder and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance.