THE WRONG MAN...

“We do not want stability in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia. . . The real issue is not whether, but how to destabilize. We have to ensure the fulfillment of the democratic revolution.” — Michael Ledeen, American Enterprise Institute


So John Bolton's out there swinging in the wind -- sent to the Senate without endorsement from the Foreign Relations Committee for his nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations.

This has committee chairman Richard Luger's drawers in a wad because he failed his assignment to steamroll Bolton through the committee to the UN without embarrassing George Bush. I don't know where Indiana's favorite son has been for the past four years, but with a little help from his proctologist, Lugar should be able to see that what turns Bush on is getting away with brazen lies, and the blood, torture, and destruction of those who are too helpless to resist.

Don't fret, Dick. It's impossible to embarrass this president -- because death is his Viagra, and he's currently in the middle of a raging, international orgasm.

Committee members at least went through the motions, some of them even kicking and screaming. On May 12, Ohio's Senator George Voinovich declared Bolton "unfit for the job," and described him as "the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be," but refused to vote against him. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) immediately placed a "hold" on Bolton's nomination designed to stall debate on the issue until committee Democrats receive requested documents.

If this gives you even a split-second of hope that maybe, just maybe, Bush will do the right thing and drag this dishonorable, warmongering creature from our sight, forget about it. For starters, if Voinovich felt strongly enough that Bolton was unfit, he would have voted his conscience and ended the fiasco right there. And, anyone who watched the dancing-monkey act performed by the rest of the committee members -- not just Republicans "with reservations" like Voinovich, Rhode Island's Lincoln Chaffee, and Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, but by those like blustering Joe "Soundbite" Biden, the Democratic Pride of Delaware -- knows that Bolton is headed to the UN.

How do I know this? Because of the questions. Not those committee members and their "esteemed colleagues" asked while relentlessly peering at Bolton under the Senate microscope, such as, "Why are you such an intolerant bully?"..."Did you try to get some Intelligence underlings fired because they questioned what your definition of 'is' is?"..."Why is it that a woman managed to outrun you in a race down a hotel corridor -- are you a girlie-boy or are you just out of shape?"..."Didn't you color the truth a bit about Syria's nuclear capability?"..."Um, speaking of color, sir -- just between us --"Is that 'got milk' mustache for real...?"

No. It was the questions they very carefully did not ask Bolton, to wit, "Why were you called home after refusing to negotiate with Libya about its WMD program?"..."Were you ordered by your boss, Richard Armitage, to give neither speeches nor testimony which had not been cleared by him?"..."Did you use super-secret National Security Agency information to spy on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohamed ElBaradei, or perhaps on your own colleagues' diplomatic efforts with North Korea?"..."Of course you are aware if you shared the NSA intercept material with, say -- the vice president or other administration officials -- you are guilty of serious protocol violations?" Or..."Refresh our memory, Mr. Bolton. Walk us through your singlehanded efforts to justify invading Iraq. Tell us again about the uranium 'yellowcake from Niger' bit that you and Frederick Fleitz, your acting chief of staff on loan from the CIA, cooked up to catapault us into war; a war that resulted in besmirching the sterling reputation of a US Secretary of State as well as the destruction of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings...."

It's no secret that Bolton hates the United Nations, and he would much prefer continuing to run Foggy Bottom from behind the scenes by cuddling up to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as her second-in-command. It's also no secret that Rice wants Bolton out of town and out of her hair. She has spent the months since her own confirmation roaming the universe lecturing world leaders on democracy -- threatening those who have the audacity to think their "internal deliberations" are of sufficient merit to escape her steely gaze and ultimate judgement.

In order to rid herself of Bolton, Rice cannot release documents that might derail his appointment. She brushed the document matter aside with a terse statement that amounted to admitting if the public finds out what she, George Bush, and goons like Bolton, his mentor Richard Perle, and his mentor Dick Cheney, have been up to behind the scenes of democracy -- it would have a "chilling effect."

Boy, she's got that right. I'm in an ecstatic deep freeze just thinking about it...

The good news is that committee members don't need to see the papers Rice is clutching behind her back to know that Bolton is eminently unfit for any position in this government, especially one requiring diplomacy. The bad news is that these elected Neanderthals obviously don't read anything unless it's a "document" released to them upon demand. Perhaps Rice doesn't want us to remember that, for years, Bolton's antipathy for the UN and his proclivity for steamrolling anyone in his path has been recorded and chronicled over and over again, much of it in Bolton's own words.

During a February 1994 event, Bolton railed against the United Nations, interrupting others while angrily jabbing his finger in their faces -- "The United States makes the UN work when it wants it to work, and that is exactly the way it should be, because the only question, the only question for the United states is what is in our national interest," Bolton snarled, "and if you don't like that, I'm sorry, but that is the fact."

Who can forget the specter of Election 2000 when Bolton -- surrounded by thugs from Tom Delay's office and other paid GOP operatives flown to Florida to disrupt the election, along with press aides Nicolle Devenish, Tucker Eskew, Ken Lisalus and Scott McClellan -- burst into a library in Tallahassee to relay news of the Supreme Court's overthrow of the government and bellowed -- "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count!"

I am among those who think that, initially, Bolton was just the mess Bush threw up against the Senate wall to distract attention from two far more sinister appointments critical to his maintaining control of the world economy and of the street rabble who might rise up against him -- war criminals Paul Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank and John Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence.

But Bush is not one to accept two-out-of-three and back off gracefully. That would be embarrassing. So, once again, Bush will hit the trifecta. Once again, freedom is on the run -- with its tail between its legs.

According to Rebecca Renfro, a close friend and formidable North Carolina researcher, Bolton represents the last piece of the neo-conservative world-dominion puzzle. "With Negroponte taking care of things at home, Wolfowitz at the World Bank and Bolton at the UN, the possibilities are limitless. Think about it," Renfro said, "on the world stage, Wolfowitz will have the carrot and Bolton the stick. Any country they don't want to openly attack will be starved into submission."

Renfro said that, prompted by Cheney and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Wolfowitz and Bolton will ensure that the United States will "decide which countries deserve to be sanctioned, which get loans and investment money, which need to be privatized and their resources sold to US investors. Nations such as Palestine and others seeking aid and assistance can just bend over and kiss it goodbye," she said. "Ain't gonna happen."

Americans know that Bolton is the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time. They know, like John McGlothlin recently declared on his McGlothlin Group forum, sending the maniacal John Bolton to the United Nations is like loosing the Tasmanian Devil to careen wildly through its halls -- a sick, out-of-control joke on a wounded world.

Democrat and Republican senators can see George Bush standing there with a smoking gun in each hand. They know their vote should be a unanimous choice to save thousands -- perhaps millions -- of innocent Iranian, Syrian, North Korean, and American lives.

I could be wrong, but I fear that after the votes are counted, we will see John Bolton headed straight for the UN, like they say down in Texas -- "Just a shittin' and a flyin'..."

And the blood? It will be on the hands of the men and women senators who would rather send our children to die; who would much rather kill women and children in other nations than make the mistake of embarrassing the madman in the White House.

It's time these officials were held accountable for their actions. If they refuse to work for the people who pay their salaries then, like Bolton, they are unfit for their jobs. Perhaps it's time we fired them -- lest the blood of our children end up on our own hands.

There are 100 senators; 30 of whom are up for re-election in 2006.* They are Democrats Daniel Akaka (HI), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Robert Byrd (WV), Maria Cantwell (WA), Thomas Carper (DE), Hillary Clinton (NY), Kent Conrad (ND), Jon Corzine (NJ), Diane Feinstein (Calif), Edward Kennedy (MA), Herb Kohl (WI), Joseph Lieberman (CT), Bill Nelson (FL), Ben Nelson (NE), Debbie Stabenow (MI)

And Republicans George Allen (VA), Conrad Burns, (MT), Lincoln Chafee (RI), Mike DeWine (OH), John Ensign (NV), Bill Frist (TN), Orrin Hatch (UT), Kay Hutchison (TX), Jon Kyl, (AZ), Trent Lott (MS), Richard Lugar (IN), Rick Santorum (PA), Olympia Snowe (ME), James Talent (MO), Craig Thomas (WY)

*Those names in boldface are on the Foreign Relations committee. Democrat committee member Paul Sarbanes (RI) has elected not to run for re-election.