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fact that the President is so insistent on Bolton in face of these concerns should make reasonable people question the President's judgment and his motives.
What is it about Bolton that has made the President so ardent in his support? I suspect part of it is because Bush likes people who "break eggs" while being deferential and loyal to him. As Carl Ford testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bolton is a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy." The President believes that loyalty to himself and to the radical right wing agenda is the most important criteria in his determinations of who should represent the U.S. and that John Bolton had earned any role he wanted (according to Cheney) when he went to Florida to "stop the vote" during the critical days after the 2000 Presidential election. But perhaps the main reason is the not so well-hidden agenda of the radical right to blow up the United Nations so as to make sure the United States can operate without having to consider international sensitivities.
Bush has made the Bolton nomination a classic power struggle and if he loses this battle, he will be seen as severely weakened. This is something he cannot and will not allow. During his previous term, the President displayed this same willing to go to the mat over taking the country to war even though now we know that the evidence he used to justify the war was seriously flawed. He has stated that he would still take the country to war despite knowing that his original reasons have all proven false. But Americans are not quite so sanguine in the face of the evidence and today a majority of Americans question whether Bush's war on Iraq was worth the price.
This nomination exposes serious character flaws in Bush: his belief that his interests (loyalty to himself and the right wing agenda) trump the country's interests, his poor judgment in choosing someone who has more than once undermined negotiations affecting national security, his disrespect for our constitution and the rule of law embodied in that document, and his own inability to compromise when it is obvious that there are legitimate reasons to oppose this nomination. Senator Reid recently remarked that for Bush, there is no moderation. He always goes for the home run which means he often strikes out. By backing Bolton, Bush is gambling that he can make the United Nations a tool of the U.S or destroy it completely. When one gambles with his own money, the results of blowing the wad is a personal tragedy. When one is the President of the United States, hubris of this sort constitutes a serious danger to the country.
[1] Tom Barry, Bolton: The Armageddon Man, AxixofLogic.com, Apr. 22, 2005
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