Bolton is Bush's Frankenstein Monster

[Larkspur]

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0511-30.htm

Published on Wednesday, May 11, 2005 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bolton is Bush's Frankenstein Monster
by Walter Williams

Too little attention has been paid to the most important aspect of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the nomination of Undersecretary of State John Bolton to be the ambassador to the United Nations.

The hearings are a red flag. The testimony pinpoints the basic flaws of the Republican-controlled administration and Congress that have brought ineffective governance.

First, the effort to promote Bolton -- in spite of his incompetence and his egregious misuse of information to push his unsubstantiated claims -- reveals the political dogmatism that has made the Bush administration policies so ineffective.

Second, winning at any cost has morphed into the overriding Bush administration objective as party polarization has turned Washington, D.C., politics into a no man's land where the nation's needs are the main casualty.

Nowhere are these two points made more clearly than in the case of Bolton, who turns out to be President Bush's Frankenstein's monster, a figurative stitching together of the administration's worst traits. Yet, his inept performance neither got him canned from his undersecretary of state job nor stood in the way of his nomination to the even more important position of U.N. ambassador.

Numerous witnesses told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Bolton was ill tempered, vindictive and abusive. He went ballistic when his judgments were challenged by subordinates, repeatedly misused information and pushed highly inflated claims about weapons of mass destruction, and disregarded any views that did not fit with his rigid ideology.
<SNIP>

Will we see John Bolton pull a Khrushchev temper tantrum? You know taking off his shoe and pounding the table until he gets his way.
Bolton is not a caricature of the Bush administration. Indeed, he is Cheney's protégé. Like others high in the Bush government, his unswerving, outspoken commitment to the president's agenda trumps any managerial deficiencies.

The administration argued that Bolton, who during his career showed disdain for the United Nations, is the best person to remake the organization to fit the Bush administration image. For the Bush true believers, all that matters is to adhere strictly to the agenda. The competence factor is irrelevance.

[madhat]

1. The RawStory stuff about abusing his exwife is interesting too....

I wonder if she'll speak up?

[Double T]

2. The Entire Bush Administration Are A Bunch Of Monsters........

...createing death and destruction across the globe. Cheney is Igor,Bush is Stupidstein and Condi is the Bride of Stupidstein.

[coloradodem2005]

3. Let this happen.

[LSparkle]

4. This was before KKKarl heard about Larry Flynt's article

Flynt's "magic" worked on Bob Livingston -- Roveco may urge JBolton to withdraw to avoid embarrassment.