There Is No Such Thing As John Bolton

Last week a group of "former American diplomats" sent a letter to Senator Richard Lugar, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urging him to reject John Bolton's nomination to the US Ambassador to the UN.

And then, just this last weekend, another group sent another letter to Senator Lugar telling him just the opposite-- that Bolton is the man for the job.

I commented on this earlier, but its resurgence in the headlines re-ignites my fury at the very idea of John Bolton as a person. I mean, he even looks mean. But the thing that really takes the cake, the thing that typifies the Bush Administration and really sums up what the past four-plus years have really been about, can be found in the following response from the State Department.

Now, before you read the State Department's response, realize that they are responding to very pointed criticisms of arguably one of the most important diplomats other than the Secretary of State herself. They said:

"He is a great nominee. We hope he will be confirmed. And we look forward to his getting to New York to do the nation's business."

When the very department in charge of his line of work can't muster more than an empty assertion of his "greatness" it really makes you wonder about the motives behind his nomination. Or at least the confidence the department actually has in him.