archy

Bolton to the UN
I have often argued that Bush's personal behavior reeks of the mind of a juvenile bully. His nomination of John Bolton to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is aanother great illustration of this mindset. Despite his frequently mocked claim to be "a uniter, not a divider," Bush is a particularly bad winner.

Bolton drew fire from Democrats in 1994 when he said at a Federalist Society forum that "there is no such thing as the United Nations."

"If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference," he said.

Several officials from U.N. Security Council member states expressed astonishment that Bush would name someone they believed had a known antipathy toward the United Nations, according to a Reuters report.

For Bush, it is not enough to always get his way, he has to rub his opponants' noses in his victory. He goes out of his way to add humiliating elements to his victories. Forcing a known UN hater on the UN fits his pattern exactly. Consider:

• When Bush cut scheduled civil service raises for the 2004 fiscal year, he chose the Labor Day weekend to make the announcement.
  
• When the Bush Justice department signed on to the lawsuit opposing affirmative action at the University of Michegan, they made the announcement on Martin Luther King Day.
  
• He sent the man who rationalized the administration's use of torture to run the Justice Department.
  
• He began his second term by resubmitting all the judges that the Democrats objected to in his first term, confident that he now has a big enough majority to trample all objections.

If Bush cared about the international reputation of the United States, or about working effectively with our allies, he would have done better to nominate Michael Bolton than John Bolton. He clearly doesn't care about anything except getting his way and punishing anyone who dares say no.