I posted on the failed attempt to achieve cloture on the Bolton nomination to be US Ambassador to the UN last night. I also mentioned how this may end up being more of PR win for the GOP than another losing vote. I think it is now clear the administration is not going to let this go, and they are going to test the democrats resolve for somet time. And in the prcess drain any remainin political capitol they still have with main street USA.

Senator Bill Frist, the leader of the Senate’s Republican majority, abruptly reversed himself after a meeting with President Bush today and said he would schedule another vote on the nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations.
“The president made it very clear that he expects an up-or-down vote,” Dr. Frist said at the White House, after lunching with the president.

“The decision in talking to the president is that he strongly supports John Bolton, as we know, and he asked that we to continue to work,” Dr. Frist said. “And we’ll continue to work.”

“It’s not dead,” he said of the nomination. “It is going to require some continued talking and discussion.”

Mark Coffey and others are wondering if it is time to cut the losses on Bolton and try and get a deal out of the democrats. I guess it would be a reasonable approach if we were dealing with reasonable people. Unfortunately Durbin and Co. do not fit that classification.

So I think Bush has this right (and here I agree with Viking Pundit). If Bolton is going to lose, then make the democrats pay for their obstinance. If Bush is getting filibuster after filibuster from the dems who have no evidence of anything ‘extraordinary’, then it will just sour main street America on the democrats.