I wish I could say I was surprised when I heard it. Given this administration, it was more "John Bolton. Of course." Ever since November 2000, I've been waiting for the dude to be given the post where he could inflict the most damage.
Thank David Corn for the setup:
If you were sitting in the Oval Office and George W. Bush asked, "Hey, tell me, who could we appoint to the UN ambassador job that would most piss off the UN and the rest of the world," your job would be quite easy. You would simply say, "That's a no-brainer, Mr. President, John Bolton." And on Monday Bush took this no-brain advice and nominated Bolton to the post, which requires Senate confirmation.
Bolton is the rightwing's leading declaimer of the United Nations. He once said, "If the UN Secretariat building in New York lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." And when the Bush administration failed to persuade the UN to back its war in Iraq, Bolton observed that was "further evidence to many why nothing should be paid to the UN system."
After seeing Bolton hold the U.S.'s infant membership in the International Criminal Court underwater until it drowned (a moment he now describes as "the most satisfying in my career"), I kept waiting for him to be appointed Secretary of State or somesuch. That it's taken five years for this to happen is either mercy or, more likely, a Dantean commedia of the highest order.
If you need more convincing, see this from the Center for American Progress (including more links than anyone can stand, I think). The only consolation is that so many people hate him -- including Poppy-style multilatteralist conservativea -- that it may be a political timebomb for the Reeps, as Jonathan at Moral Questions suggests: "more ammunition for the Dems come election time." I'd be inclined to agree if I thought the electorate thought about the U.N., or foreign policy at all.
Speaking of the U.N. --- blowback from this flareup has kept me from the conference all week, for those of you who were wondering. If you're interested, Jessica at Feministing -- even though she's also sick! -- has lots of really good updates from the CSW.
Update: Gail Collins, or whoever else wrote today's Bolton editorial, has topped us all on the subject, with a brilliant snarkiness not inappropriate for the Daily Show:
Which leaves us wondering what Mr. Bush's next nomination will be. Donald Rumsfeld to negotiate a new set of Geneva Conventions? Martha Stewart to run the Securities and Exchange Commission? Kenneth Lay for energy secretary?
This administration just gets worse and worse each day. And even when the president does something normal, like support the right side in the jordan thing, he sounds like an arrogant fool.
Oy.
Posted by: Scott | March 09, 2005 at 11:28 AM
This administration just gets worse and worse each day. And even when the president does something normal, like support the right side in the jordan thing, he sounds like an arrogant fool.
Oy.
Posted by: Scott | March 09, 2005 at 11:32 AM
Which Jordan do you mean, Scott? Not Eason. Or did you mean Lebanon, where he's trying to take credit for a 20-year-old democracy movement?
Posted by: Chris | March 09, 2005 at 01:17 PM