Bolton Resigns

UN Ambassador John Bolton has resigned his post. The White House has reluctantly accepted. This is a genuine loss for the US. Bolton was one of the few people standing up against the worst excesses of that corrupt UN bureaucracy that has become almost completely useless in recent years.

The White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination last month. But with Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw "no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again."

While Bush could not give Bolton another recess appointment, the White House was believed to be exploring other ways of keeping him in the job, perhaps by giving him a title other than ambassador. But Bolton informed the White House he intended to leave when his current appointment expires, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

Bush planned to meet with Bolton and his wife later Monday in the Oval Office.

As late as last month, Bush, through his top aides, said he would not relent in his defense of Bolton, despite unwavering opposition from Democrats who view Bolton as too combative for international diplomacy.

Perino said that among Bolton's accomplishments, he assembled coalitions addressing North Korea's nuclear activity, Iran's uranium enrichment and reprocessing work and the horrific violence in Darfur. She said he also made reform at the United Nations a top issue because the United States is searching for a more "credible" and more "effective."

"Ambassador Bolton served his country with distinction and he achieve a great deal at the United Nations," Perino said.

"Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassdor Bolton's confirmation was blocked by a Democratic filibuster, and this is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process," she said. "Nominees deserve the opportunity for a clean up or down vote. Ambassador Bolton was never given that opportunity."

One of the bad precedents the Senate Democrats have set in these past few years is that of blocking appointments on a routine basis. They will come to regret making that tactic acceptable.

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  By TC@LeatherPenguin, Tuesday, 5 December , 2006 @ 2:18 am

  Okay, if “Regis,”–the world’s most terrifying mustache–is officially off the boards, can we finally turn Turtle Bay over to Trump, and do something usefull with that dump?

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