An e-mail from well-informed source:
“A few tidbits…
1. The Senate went into a special recess so Bolton could be voted out. Voinovich knew this. He was on board. If he had a problem, he could have told Leadership before we went into a special recess.
2. Voinovich’s reason for not voting for Bolton today? “I haven’t been to the hearings and haven’t heard all these allegations until now.” Embarrassing.
3. Lugar could have solved this problem easily — he could have asked Voinovich to abstain if he didn’t feel prepared to vote. He could have told him that he was embarrasing him (Lugar) and all Republicans for blindsiding him. He could have recessed for 5 minutes so Republicans could have talked to him.
4. Lugar postponed for *three weeks.* He could have called another meeting tomorrow morning and given people time to get to Voinovich.
5. Chafee — does anybody think he’ll stick, now that Voinovich is giving him cover?”