How does the Senate deal affect the Bolton nomination? Steve Clemons reports on several developments, including the Democratic Caucus discussion on Bolton today. And this:

One of the issues that still lies outstanding is the failure of the administration to provide the NSA intercepts as requested by Senators Lugar and Biden. Chris Dodd started the intercepts request process more than a month ago -- and still nothing has been received.

Rumor has it that Senator Rockefeller and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence staff have discovered patterns of conduct by Bolton and Fleitz that raise red flags. They are now "looking into" how Bolton and Fleitz used the intelligence from the NSA intercepts -- or bettter put, "misused it."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been standing by waiting form some sort of communication from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which Negroponte said would be communicating with SFRC on the intercepts. This has not happened.

Some senators on both sides will not vote to confirm Bolton simply on this issue -- all of the necessary information needed to make a decision is not in.

And in their LAT report on the Senate deal, Ron Brownstein and Janet Hook report today on the potential implications of Senate centrists testing their strength:

Their success in this case may embolden moderate Republicans to come together and challenge their party's conservative leaders on other issues.

Posted by Laura at May 24, 2005 09:48 AM