If you've read
the latest WP story on Bolton, you'll see that it states flat-out that Condoleeza Rice, as soon as she took over from Colin Powell in January, managed to do what Colin Powell had dreamed of doing: She neutralized John Bolton, thus keeping him from doing any more damage to nuclear arms-control efforts in Russia, India, Iran and North Korea. And she did it by helping him talk Bush into nominating him for the UN job -- which, though it's high-profile, is actually a safer place to stash him than was his old NSC gig.
Things aren't perfect over at State now -- not even close -- but scarily enough, they're a damned sight better than they were six months ago.
More on this at my blog.