The Times editorialist with the John Bolton beat just can't resist pointing out the black comedy of it all.
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Mr. Bolton wanted to give a speech saying that "the United States believes that Cuba has a developmental offensive biological warfare program and is providing assistance to other rogue state programs." That sounds scary, but it was not true. Cuba was not doing those things, and U.S. intelligence agencies did not think it was. But according to numerous accounts, Mr. Bolton became enraged when an analyst from the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research pointed out the error and tried to have the analyst removed from his post.
Mr. Bolton's attempts to dodge accountability were almost
comical. At one point, explaining a trip to the C.I.A. in which he
tried to have an analyst for Latin America on the National Intelligence
Council removed for a similar act, Mr. Bolton said he had gone there
only to learn what the council does. The explanation was not remotely
believable from someone with Mr. Bolton's background in national
security. But for future reference, he might check www.cia.gov/nic, which has nifty theme music and an explanation of the council's job: preparing intelligence reports.
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I'm relieved to see that Bolton is not getting QUITE the free pass that I'd feared, and that Democrats along the spectrum from Biden to Boxer have spent the past few days giving him a hard time. I was particularly cheered by this account:
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Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) played a three-minute videotape of an
angry Bolton speaking in 1994 about the U.N. Bolton, a Yale-trained
lawyer, was a private citizen at the time of the speech but had served
in the administrations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush and
had been an assistant secretary of State in charge of relations with
the U.N.
"There is no such thing as the United Nations," Bolton
said on the tape. "There is an international community that can
occasionally be led by the only real power left in the world — and that
is the United States, when it suits our interests and when we can get
others to go along."
The tape also included a clip used by
groups in anti-Bolton advertising, in which Bolton says that the U.N.
headquarters in New York has 38 stories and "if it lost 10 stories, it
wouldn't make a bit of difference."
Boxer said the speeches appeared to reflect Bolton's disdain for the world body.
"I see the anger, the hostility," Boxer said. "What we saw here, I think, was the real John Bolton."
Boxer said 1,400 Americans worked in the headquarters building and that
the 10 stories mentioned by Bolton housed U.N. programs such as ones
that dealt with the response to the December tsunami, promoted
disarmament and sought to end the use of children as soldiers.
Boxer said she was bewildered that Bush would nominate Bolton for the job — or that Bolton would want it.
Bolton said the video had been selectively edited and that he was
speaking to the World Federalist Assn., which believes in "world
government."
-------------------------------
The World Federalist Association, of course, believes in no such thing. Though its roots are indeed with the pack of idealists who aought to fill the gap after the League of Nations failed, these days they're morde likely defending the besieged -- yet still functional and quite essential -- international mechanisms that have been created since. (Spend a fewminutea or hours with Peter Daou's new venture, the blog UN Dispatch, and you'll see what I mean.) I liked Boxer having the decency to remind the committee that if you dis the UN, you don't have a way to respond to disasters - whether the tsunami they mentioned or war crimes in Darfur, which are beginning to approach Cambodia in both its chaos and its gravity).
The allegations about Bolton:s terrorizing of low-level analysts seem an entirely unsurprising coda: if you can minimize and slur the contribution of thousands of brilliant people working on vexing international problems, and emphasze that the U.S. is the only 800-pound gorilla worth listening to, of course you'll have a tendency to behave like that gorilla yourself. While it's sad that more Senators wouldn't stand up simply on behalf of the U.N., if the personal stuff was enough to get Bolton tossed aside, there's still reason to cheer. When does the filibuster start?
Oh right. These are the polite Democrats. If the one mushy Reep won't play, then it's time to give up:
---------------------------------
Despite the drama, however, Mr. Bolton remained likely to be confirmed
for the United Nations post, a nomination that startled both Congress
and Embassy Row when the president announced it last month. Senator
Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican who Democrats were hoping
would oppose the nomination, said he remained inclined to support the
nominee, viewing the episode about which Mr. Ford testified as an
isolated incident.
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As one of the bloggers who rose up as one against Alberto Gonzales, demanding filibusters and political theater on that occasion, I am now reduced to wondering -- when will be an "appropriate" time? Is it only about the Supreme Court? By the time this group gets up the nerve to filibuster, we'll either be in a new administration or holding mock filibusters in the nursing home.
And I'm half serious about the mustache. I once dated a fabulous poet whose facial hair I tolerrated unwillingly until I saw pictures of his shaved face. "Get that off of there!* I cried. And Bolton:s push-broom is so surreal that you cn't stop thinking, right there, that the dude's grasp on reality is seriously scrod.
PBU15
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