BOLTON COMES OFF POORLY IN CONGRESSIONAL CONFIRMATION HEARINGS

Fred Kaplan of Slate gives three reasons why John Bolton should be rejected as the nominee for U.N. Ambassador:

First, the evidence suggests that Bolton, while he was undersecretary of state, tried to pressure and dismiss intelligence analysts who challenged his own preconceptions.

Second, he skirted questions of whether the United Nations should have done more to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda—and thus the underlying issue of whether the United Nations should play any role in such matters. (It should be added that Bolton's evasion was matched by that of the committee's members, who failed to push the question more directly.)

Third, he looked and sounded like a man at best uninterested in, and often contemptuous of, the United Nations as an institution.

In short, John Bolton came off as strikingly lacking in the credibility, values, and basic commitment that, especially these days, the job of U.N. ambassador requires.