Democrats made a last-ditch effort today to stall the nomination of John Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations while Republicans pressed ahead for a vote on President George W Bush's contentious nominee.
In what could be the final day of senators' lengthy consideration of Bolton, Republicans focused their ire on the United Nations and said the blunt Bolton was the right person to reform it.
Democrats argued there was evidence that Bolton, the top US diplomat for arms control, tried to exaggerate intelligence assessments of the weapons capacity of several countries.
They said the Senate should stand up to the Bush administration and demand it turn over documents they said would provide insights into whether Bolton tried to influence intelligence assessments of Syria and whether he reviewed communications intercepted by the National Security Agency to exact retribution on his opponents.
"If we can't get those documents, if we're not going to have the right to see the very things the nominee had a right to see, then I don't think we're being treated as a co-equal branch of government," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.
Democrats said Bolton's co-workers from the Bush administration had provided information showing he tried to force intelligence analysts to conform to his hard-line views, and tried to fire or punish those who refused.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said Bolton was "hyping up the threat from various countries," but was stopped by higher authorities in the State Department.
"We should not promote someone who has a history of exaggerating threats or at least trying to exaggerate threats that are not supported by intelligence," she added.
Just one Republican, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, openly opposes Bolton. Others have voiced reservations but said they were inclined to back Bush's man.
Democrats said they did not yet have a count on whether they could muster the 41 votes to postpone the confirmation.
Republicans said the administration has provided ample information for the Foreign Relations Committee review since the nomination became bogged down last month.
At Democrats' insistence, the Senate was to hold a procedural vote today that could delay Bolton's confirmation until after Congress' Memorial Day recess next week. Republicans said they hoped to have the 60 out of 100 votes needed to proceed immediately to the vote to confirm Bolton, which they said they were confident they would win.