JOHN BOLTON scraped through his most critical test on the way to becoming American Ambassador to the United Nations yesterday amid high political drama.

But President Bush’s controversial nominee was wounded in the process, casting further doubt about his credibility should he win final confirmation to the job.

All senators will now get the chance to decide Mr Bolton’s fate after his nomination was sent to the chamber by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr Bolton failed to win the committee’s recommendation after a blistering assault on his credentials by a fellow Republican.

The blunt and aggressive Mr Bolton was assailed as a walking advertisement for what a diplomat should not be by George Voinovich, the swing Republican on the committee who has emerged as his key critic.

Mr Voinovich, an independent-minded Ohioan who has previously confounded President Bush, stunned onlookers with the ferocity of his assault, saying that Mr Bolton would have been dismissed if he had worked for a private company instead of the State Department during the past four years.

“I’ve come to the determination that the United States can do better than John Bolton,” Mr Voinovich told a tense committee meeting.

But just as Mr Voinovich appeared to be on the point of scuppering Mr Bolton’s nomination and delivering a damaging snub to Mr Bush, he pulled back from the brink. He said that he was prepared to allow Mr Bolton’s name to pass through the committee and on to the Senate floor, but only if the committee withheld its recommendation.

Mr Voinovich made clear he would oppose Mr Bolton when it came to a vote of the full Senate. But Republicans have a ten-vote majority in the chamber. Democrats would have to entice four more Republicans into their camp to tie a vote, and a further one to avoid Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, breaking the tie in Mr Bolton’s favour. However, Democrats could filibuster, a delaying tactic that requires 60 of the Senate’s 100 votes to break.

The upshot is that Mr Bolton, the super-hawk who Mr Bush thinks can best drive through reform of the UN, is closer to making it to New York, but is not yet home and dry.

And if he does win confirmation, he will do so limping, with some of Mr Voinovich’s criticisms still ringing in his ears. “Mr Bolton has serious deficiencies in the areas that are critical to being a good ambassador,” the senator said, echoing complaints of Democrats. “He’s an ideologue and fosters an atmosphere of intimidation. He does not tolerate disagreement.

“It is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.”

Mr Voinovich said that the appointment would tell the world that the US was not dedicated to repairing its relationships overseas, but that it believed only someone with sharp elbows could deal properly with the international community.

He added that Mr Bolton’s hard-charging style would make it more difficult for the US to achieve badly needed reforms at the UN.

All Mr Bush’s senior appointments, other than jobs on the White House staff, require confirmation by the Senate. Most of the time the President gets his way.

It is very unusual that a nominee should emerge from the relevant Senate committee without a positive recommendation. It happened to Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court justice, after bitter confirmation hearings in 1991.

Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, conceded that Mr Bolton’s actions “were not always exemplary”.

But Mr Lugar said there was no evidence that Mr Bolton had broken laws or engaged in serious ethical misconduct. And being blunt was no disqualification.

The “extraordinary circumstances” required for denying a President his choice did not exist, Mr Lugar said.

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