US: The respite lasted less than three days. The bipartisan divide in the US Senate, stitched up on Tuesday in a deal over confirming judges, has been ripped open again over the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the UN.
Democrats forced yet another delay in a vote on the nomination, which has now been put back until at least June 7th after a week-long recess.
A Republican call on Thursday evening for an immediate confirmation vote was defeated, getting only 56 of the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to cut short the debate.
The result raised questions about the ability of President George Bush to get Senate approval for ideological nominations.
It also delivered another setback to Senate majority leader, Bill Frist who had championed Bolton as ambassador to the UN.
Dr Frist said he was "very, very disappointed", while the Democrats insisted that they needed additional time to put pressure on the Bush administration to produce additional classified information on Mr Bolton.
Earlier in the week, Dr Frist was outmanoeuvred by seven moderates in his own party who thwarted his campaign to get rid of the filibuster rule - under which 60 votes are needed to cut off debate - by joining with seven Democratic moderates in a compromise deal.
Under the deal, moderate Democrats promised to block attempts by their own party leadership to filibuster Mr Bush's nominees, except in exceptional circumstances.
Two days later those exceptional circumstances were invoked, when Democrats claimed that the vote should be delayed, as the White House was withholding crucial information about the past service of Mr Bolton in the State Department.
"John Bolton, the very first issue we turned to, we got what looks to me like a filibuster," Dr Frist said. "It certainly sounds like a filibuster, it quacks like a filibuster."
It has been 11 weeks since Mr Bush nominated Mr Bolton, a severe critic of the United Nations who has been accused of riding roughshod over intelligence officials who did not concur with his hardline assessments of foreign-held weapons of mass destruction.
One republican, George Voinovich of Ohio, broke ranks with his leader in an emotional speech, reflecting the intense pressure he has been under from his colleagues and constituents who support Mr Bolton.
He said: "We owe it to the United States, our children and our grandchildren" to persuade the president to find a better candidate.
The Los Angeles Times yesterday called for Dr Frist to resign, saying the defection of seven members of his own party to make a compromise on judicial nominations and leave the filibuster intact "did not reflect well on his leadership skills".
Dr Frist suffered another defeat this week when a large Senate majority moved to pass a bill, against his wishes, that would ease restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
In another embarrassment for his Republican majority, it was disclosed yesterday that two days before Senator Rick Santorum introduced a Bill that could restrict the National Weather Service, his political action committee received a $2,000 donation from the chief executive of a leading private supplier of weather data.
Meanwhile, the ethics troubles of House majority leader Tom DeLay have grown worse with a ruling by a judge in Austin, Texas, that his political action committee broke the law by failing to disclose $600,000 in donations.
Judge Joe Hart made the ruling as he awarded $196,660 in damages to five Democratic candidates defeated in 2002 by Republicans who received money from DeLay's committee.
The House majority leader has been widely criticised for his relationships with lobbyists who provided him with foreign trips and funding.