Newsweek: A Nuclear Blunder? (Bolton didn't prepare for key conference)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7817986/site/newsweek/

George W. Bush has said it often enough. The No. 1 security challenge for America post-9/11 is to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists or rogue regimes. In a landmark speech at the National Defense University in February 2004, the president called for a toughened Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other new initiatives. “There is a consensus among nations that proliferation cannot be tolerated,” Bush said. “Yet this consensus means little unless it is translated into action.”

By action Bush meant the hard work of diplomacy, John Bolton, the president’s point man on nuclear arms control, told Congress a month later. For one thing, America needed to lead an effort at “closing a loophole” in the 35-year-old NPT, Bolton testified back then. The treaty’s provisions had to be updated to prevent countries like Iran from enriching uranium under cover of a peaceful civilian program—which is technically permitted under the NPT—when what Tehran really sought was a bomb, according to the administration.

But if the NPT needed so much fixing under U.S. leadership, why was the United States so shockingly unprepared when the treaty came up for its five-year review at a major conference in New York this month, in the view of many delegates? And why has the United States been losing control of the conference’s agenda this week to Iran and other countries—a potentially serious setback to U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran?

Part of the answer, several sources close to the negotiations tell NEWSWEEK, lies with Bolton, the undersecretary of State for arms control. Since last fall Bolton, Bush’s embattled nominee to be America’s ambassador to the United Nations, has aggressively lobbied for a senior job in the second Bush administration. During that time, Bolton did almost no diplomatic groundwork for the NPT conference, these officials say.

[pfitz59]

1. fellating the boss

"kiss up, kick down" kind a guy.

[NNN0LHI]

5. I have known a few people where I worked who fit that description well

We called them suck asses.

Don

[MGKrebs]

2. Also, since Dean and other Dems made such a big deal

about it, they can't be seen as bending to the will of ::gasp!::: Democrats.

[wicket]

3. Unfit for the UN

:kick:

[rndmprsn]

4. i'm offended deeply that this admin would nominate this subhuman...

to such and important post when he has been a proven failure...leadership wise, style wise, and now results wise...putting this man in such an important post is willfull negligence on their part...and dangerous too i might add!

[xultar]

6. Well why prepare if you know all the answers already? n/t

[gratuitous]

7. Why are you bringing up his record?

Mr. Bolton wants to be judged on his character and temperament this week!

And when more testimony comes up that he's a Class A Jerk, he'll want to be evaluated on his record.

Then his demeanor.

Then his performance.

Then because he's got the biggest gosh-darn walrus mustache you've seen in all your born days!

[Tigress DEM]

13. Character? Hmm. Read post 12 and tell me if you think he has a chance.

If the bushits wanted to be serious about a Republican UN appointment, they would go with someone like Colin Powell who had the guts to open his mouth and speak the truth when they finally broke down and told him what they had been doing behind closed doors.

Bolton is the best they have? You got to be kidding me.

[Tigress DEM]

14. Speaking of Characters... Went to good ol' Norm Coleman...

Wanted to advise him to be a man and tell *ush to give up and appoint someone who won't get us blown up.

Hell, even Norm would be better and I downright despise that monkey man traitor to the Democratic Party.

Seems on his own website Norm only allows top down communication, but you guys have to do me a favor....

He's got this poll about the "death tax" (also known as inheritence tax) which I believe is the one framed for people whose estates are valued in excess of $675,000... which is going up to $1 million soon. http://www.pcdf.org/meadows/inheritance_tax.html

So I say, let's take his poll and let him know we don't want the "death tax" to go away. People who have that large of estates can give 17 - 55% back and still hand their kids a whole lot of lettuce.

http://coleman.senate.gov


And I'm still going to find an email address for him and tell him to do the right thing about the Bolton deal.

[Tigress DEM]

15. To Norm....

Norm,

Look, I'm going to reach across the river and the isle, although I've pretty much given up hope that you will fairly represent Democrats in this state even though you were in this party as recently as 1996.

That said, and if you are still reading I'd be impressed.... Bolton is a disaster. Stop the madness, Norm. Talk some common sense into your party.

Do you really want such a hot head in the UN stirring things up when all over the World people hate the US because of what they have percieved as heavy handed treatment?

Why not Powell? Why not you? Anyone who can actually control themselves from becoming abusive to others when they feel their control is suffering.

You know I am being reasonable, Norm. I don't want to be blown up in a nuclear war and neither do you, but Bolton is not fully hinged. He doesn't care and he's going to cause major problems.

Stop him. It's not even just a Minnesota thing. This is the UN. This is serious. Contrary to what you have said before; it is your job to make your President understand that some appointments are just wrong.

Preferably that would have been done behind closed doors before anyone knew such an awful choice was being considered. You think someone would have told Bush that Bolton's tempermant wasn't suited or something like that, but Bush hasn't exactly cultivated an atmosphere of genuine discussion. Still, it's in your party's best interests to keep him from making a terrible mistake.

Do what you can.

Thanks.

Mamie

[struggle4progress]

8. kick

[ohtransplant]

9. This needs to be front and center with the committee.

"Senator Luger, Voinovich, Chafee, et al, could you imagine what could happen at the UN if our Ambassador prepared this way?"

Get ready to bend over and kiss you a** good-bye.

[kimpossible]

10. Emailed this to Senator Chafee!

Here's what I wrote him:


New revelations disclosed today in Newsweek raise some of the most serious doubts yet about John Bolton's qualifications to be a diplomat at all.

Toughening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was a key foreign policy objective espoused by the White House this year. Yet at this week's NPT conference, we find ourselves in as weak a position as ever.

Quoting here from the Newsweek article,

"Part of the answer, several sources close to the negotiations tell NEWSWEEK, lies with Bolton, the undersecretary of State for arms control. Since last fall Bolton, Bush�s embattled nominee to be America�s ambassador to the United Nations, has aggressively lobbied for a senior job in the second Bush administration. During that time, Bolton did almost no diplomatic groundwork for the NPT conference, these officials say.

�John was absent without leave� when it came to implementing the agenda that the president laid out in his February 2004 speech, a former senior Bush official declares flatly. Another former government official with experience in nonproliferation agrees. �Everyone knew the conference was coming and that it would be contentious. But Bolton stopped all diplomacy on this six months ago,� this official said. �The White House and the National Security Council started worrying, wondering what was going on. So a few months ago the NSC had to step in and get things going themselves. The NPT regime is full of holes�it's very hard for the U.S. to meet our objectives�it takes diplomacy.� "


The full article is available online at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7817986/site/newsweek


I strongly urge you to consider this new evidence of diplomatic incompetence before voting on Bolton's nomination for U.N. Ambassador. Our nation simply can't afford to take the risk of more blunders of this magnitude.

[Hailtothechimp]

11. Bolton confirmation = somebody will use nukes

My money's on North Korea. But somebody will do it. Cooler heads cannot prevail when Bolton, Condi, Cheney et al are in the house.

[Tigress DEM]

12. Or maybe he was trying to get his wife into a menage-a-tuoi

Larry Flint has leaked some info that Bolton's first wife bolted after they went to another country and people suspect Bolton wanted her in on some orgy or something and she left him and never looked back - Let me get the URL:


http://www.larryflynt.com/bolton
John R. Bolton Court Divorce Records Show His First
Wife Fled Home When He Was Traveling Abroad

<clip>
Publisher Larry Flynt's Questions Posed to State Department Regarding Corroborated Allegations that First Wife was Forced into Group Sex go Unanswered

May 11-LOS ANGELES-Court records concerning the divorce of John R. Bolton, the Bush administration's nominee to become the next ambassador to the United Nations, show his first wife fled the couple's marital home when he was traveling abroad in mid-August 1982. The records further show that she took most of the couple's furniture.

Corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton's first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department despite inquires posed by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt concerning the allegations. Mr. Flynt has obtained information from numerous sources that Mr. Bolton participated in paid visits to Plato's Retreat, the popular swingers club that operated in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

************************
On Air America a caller said Flint has been sued a lot, but never for actually making things up.

[harpo]

16. sounds like chimp...never around when he's supposed to be

[truthisfreedom]

17. why does this guy want to be ambassador to the UN so badly? and why does

bushco want him in so badly? he's totally unfit for the job! and it's being proven and exposed every day!

is the whole plan to put this incompetent bully in charge of destroying our relationship with the UN completely?

[wryter2000]

18. Bingo

is the whole plan to put this incompetent bully in charge of destroying our relationship with the UN completely?

And perhaps that would also accomplish the total dismantling of the UN. We know what the Chimp means when he says, "reform." Destroy.