WASHINGTON— Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, vowed Tuesday to hold another vote by the end of this week on the stalled nomination of John R. Bolton to be U.N. ambassador, if only to embarrass Democrats by putting a spotlight on their decision to block his confir- mation.
But Democrats, undaunted, said they would continue to block any vote until the White House provides information they are seeking relating to Bolton's tenure at the State Department, where he served until recently as undersecretary for arms control.
The central issue is Bolton's review of names of American individuals and companies mentioned in commun- ications intercepted by the National Security Agency. Democrats at first sought a complete list of the names, but recently narrowed the request and asked the White House to compare a list of about 36 "names of concern," which have not been publicly disclosed, against those Bolton reviewed.
The White House has refused to do so, and negotiations have been fruitless. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tried to broker a compromise last week. On Tuesday, however, he sent a letter to two leading Democrats saying he could not "support a request which suggests that three dozen names are pertinent to the intercept issue."
Also on Tuesday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said he had sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "to gain a better understanding of Mr. Bolton's actions" after he obtained the names from the NSA.
"The other side is unreasonably and irresponsibly filibustering this nominee," Frist said at a morning news conference, where he was joined by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Frist also complained that each time Democrats got information about Bolton, they asked for more. "The goal post keeps shifting again and again," he said.
McCain said he had urged Frist to schedule another vote on the nomination "and get people on record, because this is very important."
But support among Democrats for the filibuster seems to have only deepened recently, and a number of Democrats seemed mystified by Frist's remark about goal posts.
"If the goal posts have been moved at all, they've been moved in the administration's direction," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who is pressing the case for more information.