Normally even tempered Steve Clemons has been driven into shrill unholy madness with the nomination of John Bolton to be UN Ambassador.
I have kept my powder dry these last several days on John Bolton's nomination to serve as America's Ambassador to the United Nations. I have just been trying to get my head around this gesture by Bush & Co. -- and think that there is virtually no centrist ground to occupy when it comes to his appointment.
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I have thoroughly read through Bolton's statements and writing and can find nothing that indicates that he would be anything but destructive.
Democrats and moderate Republicans have to stop ceding decisions to the President when those decisions are so harmful to the nation as a whole. We have to stop saying, "we will oppose the President even though Bolton's nomination will probably go through."
We need to embarrass the government on this decision -- and suggest better alternatives, other Republicans who would be a far better choice as our representative to the United Nations, than John Bolton.
Here is what we need from you in the blogosphere -- and I realize that some of you may not agree that this fight is worth the effort. Please indulge those of us who feel that opposing Bolton is in your interest, as well as ours.
We need language to reward and inspire Senators willing to oppose Bolton -- and language that shames those willing to stand with Bolton and who essentially want the United Nations to be a non-entity. It is worth remembering that Bolton once stated, "The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."
Clemons has follow-up posts here, here and here.
As I've said before, I think Senators should take a much firmer stance with regard to nominations. It is possible that Bolton could be blocked or even withdrawn, and that would be positive indeed (until the next middle-finger nomination is rolled out by the White House). Dem Senators have been making a few waves on the Hill of late and a certain ranking member of a certain comittee could ease some of the tention of his recent sell out by loudly and proudly opposing this nomination and working to make such opposition bi-partisan. Biden voted for Gonzalez and for Rice, and with his support of the bankruptcy bill, it's well past time he got back in the ranks. I single out Biden not simply for his recent truancy, but also because he's in the best position to turn these hearings into a forum on Bush's foreign policy. Bolton has never been shy about going on the record on a host of topics that are relevant to the position for which he's now nominated. Demonstrating that he's simply unfit to represent the people of the United States at the United Nations should not be a challenge. How about it Joe?