John Bolton...the saga continues

A good catch by Norwegianity.

A good run down on the Bolton nomination can be found in Bolton Finds U.N. Nomination in Jeopardy buy Anne Geran. The general consensus is the Bolton nomination is in big trouble.

• "This nomination is not doomed, but it's on life support and the plug may well be pulled any day," said Allan J. Lichtman, a political history professor at American University.


• "My sense is that he's going down," said Thomas Mann, an expert on Congress and the presidency at the Brookings Institution in Washington. It is not clear, Mann said, whether Bolton would jump or be pushed by the White House.

From what I've heard about Bolton he won't jump unless Karl Rove has a gun in his back. While we will see the administration continue to support Bolton for another week or two behind the scenes I would imagine they are opening the window and loading the gun.

To salvage the nomination, the White House probably will have to offer some "exculpatory information" to counter the daily trickle of new allegations about Bolton's record, Lichtman said. In the end, however, he said it may depend on how badly the White House wants Bolton's confirmation.

"If the White House wants to spend enough political chips they could save it," Lichtman said.

The administration's pile of "political chips" is getting a bit low and I would be very surprised if they would be willing to put many on the table to save the Bolton nomination.

Update
I have more over at Running Scared.