THE UNWANTED MAN….Dan Drezner on John Bolton’s recess appointment as ambassador to the UN:
My views on Bolton remain unchanged — from the Bush administration’s perspective, this is an unwanted man being sent to an unwanted institution.
OK, I guess I can buy that. I gather that Dan’s point is that since the Bush administration loathes the UN anyway, it hardly matters who they send there. And at least this appointment gets Bolton far, far away from a job with real influence.
So there’s your silver lining for the day.
UPDATE: As long as we’re on the subject, though, the Mock Turtle reminds us that the holdup on Bolton’s nomination was the fault of Bush, not Senate Democrats:
It is not that Bolton was denied an up-or-down vote as Bush is claiming. On the contrary, his up-or-down vote was waiting only for the release of the full documents from the White House that were needed so that the Senate could make that vote. Once the Senate had those documents the vote would have gone ahead.
Bolton had not yet been confirmed because of the White House’s actions, not because of the Senate’s. It was the White House that was stalling, not the Senate. And let’s be equally clear on why George Bush made a recess appointment. It was so he could avoid releasing the requested documents.
So what was in those documents, anyway? They’ve sure gone to a lot of effort to keep them secret.
