Will Bonkers Bolton Be Booted?
by Jeff Davis
The Bush administration not only appointed the worst Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld; they appointed the worst UN ambassador, John Bolton. While there is considerable anxiety among patriotic Americans about the recent Democrat victories, one possible benefit is that the United States may be relieved of the embarrassment of having a certifiable lunatic as our ambassador to the United Nations.
CNN reports that the Senate is preparing to dislodge U.N. Ambassador John “Bonkers” Bolton from the office he has held by a recess appointement for the past 15 months. Bolton is so nuts that even a good many Republicans can’t stomach him. According to CNN: “A key Senate Republican has joined Democrats in opposing one of Bush’s initiatives for the lame-duck Congress: John Bolton’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. With leaders from both parties promising a new bipartisan Washington, Bush began efforts to get two of his most controversial decisions approved before the Democrats take over. Along with Bolton’s nomination, Bush said he would like to move forward on legislation to retroactively authorize the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program.” (Including the provisions immunizing himself and others among his neocon gang from prosecution for their criminal activities along the lines of illegal surveillance of American citizens.) “Bush said he would like to see action on both issues before year’s end,” In other words before the Democrats take power in Congress. Yeah, I bet he would.
But it looks like Bush will be defeated by defectors in his own party who will seize this opportunity to finally get rid of this fruitcake. CNN tells us that “Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated in this week’s election, said he would block Bolton’s nomination. Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton’s nomination would move forward without his support. The American people have spoken out against the president’s agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy,” the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.’” It could also be one of Chafee’s last acts of revenge against a President who has dragged the Republican party into the mud and blood of Iraq and who has severely damaged the positive reputation that Ronald Reagan gave the GOP. Chafee is one of the Senators who lost his seat in the recent elections, and it looks like he’s sending one more torpedo into the sinking Bush ship.
CNN goes on, “After failing to get a Senate vote for Bolton’s nomination, Bush made the appointment in August 2005 during a Congressional recess. Bolton’s appointment will expire in January unless the Senate confirms him, and the probable next chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee says approval is unlikely. ‘I see no point in considering Mr. Bolton’s nomination again in the Foreign Relations Committee because, regardless of what happens there, he is unlikely to be considered by the full Senate,’ said Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, who is set to become the committee’s chairman and control the agenda in January.
Bolton’s bizarre neocon resume includes involvement up to his eyeballs when he was at the State Department in the false intelligence information which the neocons used to lie their way into the Iraq war, and a series of incidents which have caused widespread questions about the man’s sanity –questions which even the Senate itself can no longer ignore. CNN states that “Sen. George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, took to the floor and read a list of complaints by Bolton’s subordinates who said he had a reputation of bullying his colleagues, taking facts out of context and exaggerating intelligence. Carl Ford, the former chief of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, called Bolton “a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy” and a “serial abuser” of subordinates. For a polite gentleman’s club like the Senate, even something as sanitized as this recitation of a colleague’s misbehavior is rare.
Bolton’s many “eccentricities” include constant abusive and insulting behavior towards everyone he works with, including fellow U.N. diplomats; bizarre and demented tirades at subordinates whenever his judgement is questioned or he is faced with any opposition or disagreement; similar tirades directed against reporters and rambling, incoherent media interviews; an often wild-eyed and disheveled appearance in public (one anonymous source state that “he looks and acts like a schizophrenic off his meds half the time”) and such odd habits as walking up and down the corridors of the U.N. talking to himself. Interestingly, many sources who fear to be named in public make similar comments about Bush himself; the Bush White House has been compared by staffers to “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” Maybe Bush appointed Bolton because they’re kindred spirits in more ways than one.