Farewell John Bolton

(Washington, D.C.): Today’s announcement that John Bolton will forego further efforts to remain at his post as the (ironically named) Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations brings to end one of the ugliest episodes of government misconduct.

The source of the misconduct was never Mr. Bolton, however. Rather, it was those in the Senate and elsewhere who falsely accused him of various actions – ranging from brutalizing subordinates to skewing intelligence to holding the UN in well-deserved contempt – which they insisted disqualified him from serving at Turtle Bay, even after he served there with distinction for a year-and-a-half on a the basis of a recess appointment.

The true scandal involves the likes of Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden, who refused to allow a vote on Mr. Bolton’s confirmation the first time around. When President Bush submitted the nomination again earlier this year, they bottled it up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the help of defeated Republican-in-Name-Only Sen. Lincoln Chafee.

In the end, the Senators were motivated by an ideological vendetta against a superbly qualified man. They persisted in it despite the indisputable evidence from Amb. Bolton’s time at the UN that they were wrong to oppose him in 2005 and remain wrong today. They have done the country a disservice in time of war when the need for a representative with the sorts of skills Mr. Bolton brought to the job is greater than ever.

We can only hope that this will prove to be but a brief interval away from government service for John Bolton as individuals with his intellect, experience and commitment to the Reagan philosophy of “peace through strength” are always in short supply. Those responsible for his departure at this time will bear a heavy responsibility for his involuntary absence from duty as the War for the Free World becomes more parlous by the day.