WASHINGTON - John Bolton, the embattled White House nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, suffered a major setback Thursday when a key Republican lawmakers expressed "great concern" about his nomination for the influential post.
Senator George Voinovich, whose reservations about Bolton prematurely scuttled a vote on the nomination last month, told members of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee that making Bolton the US envoy to the world body would send a "negative message to the world community."
Voinovich also expressed concerns about allegations that Bolton mistreated staff members and underlings during his long career as an official in various capacities in Washington, saying that allegations of arrogance and bullying "are the very characteristics that we are tying to dispel in the world community."
The marathon meeting Thursday in the bitterly-divided US Senate committee was the latest showdown between Democrats and Republicans on the which has wrangled bitterly for weeks over whether to endorse or scuttle US President George W. Bush's nominee for the influential UN post.
If approved, Bolton would become one of Washington's most visible foreign policymakers on virtually every major issue, from nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea to the future of the world body itself.
05/12/2005 15:10 GMT