Republicans can parse this story a million ways, slam Republican opponents of the nomination as hypocritical no-shows and traitors from dusk 'til dawn, but they can't escape the quickly solidifying, collective picture of one John Bolton, U.N. ambassador nominee: he is a bully, an anti-diplomat, and an ambarassment to whatever agency is fool enough to have him.
Newsweek (eventually leeched by CBS News) nails Bolton on, not just his bad temper, but on his possible misstatements to the Senate Foreign Relations committee regarding the supposed attaboys he testified to receiving from George W. Bush's ambassador to South Korea after delivering a 2003 speech to the Heritage Foundation dissing North Korea as a "hellish nightmare" led by a "blud sucker" who incidentally is also "human scum."
Bolton testified that then-ambassador Thomas Hubbard both approved and high-fived the speech. Hubbard begs to differ, and has gone to the committee with his version, which could spell trouble for our fair nominee (lying to the committee is not a good way to win the support of wavering Senators).
Worse, former Monica stain-chaser Michael Isikoff and pardner Mark Hosenball detail serious allegations against Bolton that go well beyond his apparently odious personality and management style:
...Congressional Democrats are also pressing the administration for a more detailed explanation of why Bolton requested unedited intelligence intercepts from the National Security Agency which included the names of American government officials. According to a letter that the State Department sent this week to Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, one of Bolton's most vocal critics, over the past four years Bolton on 10 occasions requested that NSA supply him with unedited intercepts that included U.S. officials’ names. Under normal procedures, NSA, which is severely restricted from spying on Americans, is required by its own rules to edit out the names of any American citizens who are mentioned in intercepts the agency collects from its vast international network which eavesdrops on international communications and breaks foreign government codes.
Bolton opponents have speculated that Bolton might have sought the unedited NSA intercepts so that he could use them to try and promote his policy positions in the administration and undermine the positions of officials who opposed him. Administration and Congressional sources tell NEWSWEEK, however, that the State Department and NSA over the last few days have reviewed their records and discovered that since 2001, State Department officials made an estimated 400 requests for intercepts which included the names of Americans or citizens of other countries which are NSA's partners in its international eavesdropping network, which include Great Britain, Canada and Australia.
Bolton's supporters argue that his 10 requests for such material over the last four years therefore are insignificant. Bolton's critics say that they cannot tell whether or not Bolton's requests for the information were significant until they have some sense of the content of the unedited intercepts Bolton had requested.
That last allegation, that Bolton may have sought to obtain the names of American officials in order to lobby or undermine them, seems serious enough on its own to raise questions about whether this man would ever be trusted by his U.N. colleagues were he to head to New York. His history of bullying, intelligence bending and undiplomatic blustering have already made it doubtful he would be either liked, respected, or readily believed... And this helps U.S. foreign policy how???
And of course, this saga wouldn't be complete without a bit of White House chicanery:
Congressional investigators are also pressing the State Department to release extensive e-mail exchanges between Bolton, his aides, and the State Department and CIA officials that Bolton tangled with regarding Cuban WMD. Before Bolton's initial confirmation hearing earlier this month, the State Department sent the Foreign Relations Committee a sheaf of relevant e-mails which appeared to be unclassified. But the Department later sent another set of the same material covered by a classified cover-sheet, leading some Bolton opponents to suggest the administration was trying to re-classify formerly non-secret information to avoid public embarrassment to Bolton.
Congressional sources say that the administration has now relented and de-classified part of the material, but Bolton's critics who are pressing for further de-classifications expect some of the documentation to be made public later this week.
The only question at this point seems to be, how much more public embarrassment are Bolton, the White House, and their die-hards in the press and in "the base" willing to put up with before they Bernie Kerik this guy?
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%>
Tell a friend
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if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
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'put the webmaster address here
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sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
