July 19, 2005 -- President Bush has nominated William Robert Timken, Jr. to be the next U.S. ambassador to Germany. Timken, the head of Canton, Ohio-based Timken Co. and one of the Bush campaign's deep pocketed "Pioneer" half million dollar contributors, also served on the board of directors of Ohio-based Diebold, Inc., the company accused of helping to fix the 2004 presidential elections through the use of faulty and paperless computerized voting machines. Timken conveniently resigned from the board of Diebold on July 5, 2005, just a few weeks prior to Bush nominating him as ambassador to Germany. Note to Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: This will be the first time you will be able to get someone so involved with Diebold and the 2004 election under oath during his confirmation hearings. This is something John Conyers would've dearly loved to do over on the House Judiciary Committee -- but official hearings were blocked by the GOP. Senators Biden, Dodd, Feingold, etc.: don't blow this golden opportunity to grill Timken on what he knows about Diebold chairman Walden O'Dell, his comment that he would "do whatever he could" to put Ohio in Bush's column, and pre-programmed Diebold "election engineering." The GOP will argue it has nothing to do with Timken's qualifications to be an ambassador -- but being involved in a crooked election says everything about Timken's integrity.