Will Sen. Lugar give

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Will Sen. Lugar give us the bum’s rush on John Bolton?

Opposition to John Bolton’s nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations is widespread, if latent, even among some of the more sensible Republicans in the senate (not that that means they won’t vote for him, mind you). And awareness and opposition to his nomination is picking up speed quickly outside Congress too.

But from what I’m told, much of this is going to come down to whether Sen. Richard Lugar (R), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calls for hearings on the nomination today. Senate procedures come in to play here. But basically, if Lugar calls for the hearing today, there’s a six day notification rule. And that pretty much means that a quick committee hearing can be held next week and the full senate can rush Bolton through before there’s a chance for there to be any serious debate over his qualifications or appropriateness for the job. If he doesn’t call for it today the whole thing will get pushed into April.

Steve Clemons reports that the State Department is leaning heavily on Lugar to rush the thing through to avoid precisely that open debate. (Steve’s a former senate staffer. So he knows the ins-and-outs of the place as well as anyone.)

If this is something you care about, stop by Steve’s site now to find out more and see what you can do.

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