March 10, 2005 -- Top Senate Democrats — led by their failed presidential candidate, John Kerry — are squealing in anguish over President Bush's nomination of John Bolton as America's U.N. ambassador.
Kerry called the selection of Bolton — an outspoken critic of the world body — "just about the most inexplicable appointment the president could make."
Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Biden, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, expressed "surprise" at the choice — and not at all pleasant.
All of which underscores why the Democratic Party continues its descent to permanent minority status.
Bolton, now the administration's arms-control expert, brings a distinguished record to the ambassador's job — albeit one the media are labeling "hard-line."
His selection also signals that while President Bush means to repair America's relationship with the international community, he will not do so on bended knee or by compromising his principles.
And that he believes what ails the U.N. is not a lack of more U.S. cash, as Democrats charge, but a lack of moral mettle.
As Bolton said Monday: "American leadership is critical to the success of the U.N., an effective U.N., one that is true to the original intent of its charter's framers."
In the past, only such extraordinary envoys as the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick have had the courage to say such things — and we have every faith that Bolton will live up to their example.
Indeed, he's already shown that he does: In 1991, as assistant secretary of state, he led the effort to repeal the U.N.'s ugly 1975 "Zionism-is-racism" resolution.
The United Nations, as even its blindly loyal admirers will admit, is in crisis. Politically, it speaks the language of leftist revolutionaries; practically, it is beset by corruption and scandal — Oil-for-Food being only the most visible — and an inability to function effectively as a peacekeeping force.
For all his tough, undiplomatic language, John Bolton aims to help the world body regain its footing.
We wish him well.
:puke: :puke: :puke:
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/22346.htm