In a brazen display of partisanship, President Bush recently renominated the abrasive, staunch nationalist neo-conservative John Bolton to the post of US Ambassador to the United Nations. The Economist and The New Yorker both reported on Bolton’s tenchy relationship with the rest of the diplomatic community. As Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker reports:
At the UN, Bolton has earned a reputation — in the not very diplomatic
words of sixty-four former American Ambassadors and diplomats who
recently signed a letter opposing him — for “egotistical intolerance,”
“arrogant actions,” and a “hard-core, go-it-alone posture” that “has
alienated the bulk of the diplomatic community and cost the United
States its leadership role.”
The Economist quotes an unnamed Western diplomat as saying, "He [Bolton] has succeeded in putting almost everyone’s backs up, even among some
of America’s closest allies. His main achievement has been to break the
unified coalition of the North and unify the previously fragmented
South."
I’ve known since before his first nomination that Bolton was going to be disaster. He’s still the wrong person for the job. In an era where America needs as many friends as it can get, sending back in the jerkwad is just the wrong strategy.
Typical negotiation strategy. The way you get to space is to shoot for the moon. Bush did the exact same thing with his supreme court appointment.
Appoint someone who was horrendous for the position and while everyone was trying to get over how awful the choice was, sneak in someone who was clearly talented but very right wing.
John Bolton is exactly the same thing. He’s acting as cover for George Bush’s real choice and he’s doing a pretty good job of it.
If only he were being so clever. Unfortunately Bolton is actually Pres Bush’s choice.