The White House renewed its insistence yesterday that the Senate confirm John R. Bolton to be U.N. ambassador, but key senators said they see no evidence of a plan to make it happen.
With the Senate having voted twice to sustain a filibuster against Bolton, the Bush administration and congressional leaders appeared to assign each other the responsibility of breaking the three-month impasse. Several senators said they do not understand why President Bush is demanding Bolton's approval without presenting a strategy for picking up the handful of needed Democrats.
"I don't see anything happening," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), a Democratic leader of the Bolton fight. "I think the train has left the station" in terms of finding a compromise.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) largely washed his hands of the matter, saying he has done all he can to secure the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to end debate and allow a simple-majority vote on Bolton's confirmation, which he predicted would pass. "The environment has to change, but it's not just up to the White House," Frist said in an interview. "It's really between the White House and Chris Dodd and Joe Biden."
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