Bolton's just too hip for scaredy-cat Dems

[Tigermike 3,050]

Bolton's just too hip for scaredy-cat Dems

April 17, 2005

BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Boy, this confirmation battle over John Bolton, the president's plain-spoken nominee for U.N. ambassador, is really heating up. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the Democratic Party's comely obstructionist, has charged that Bolton needs ''anger management lessons.''

I don't know about you, but nothing makes me want to hurl a chair through the window and punch someone's lights out like being told I need anger management lessons. So I was interested to hear about the kind of violent Boltonian eruptions that had led Boxer to her diagnosis. Well, here it comes. (If you've got young children present, you might want to take them out of the room.) From the shockingly brutal testimony of Thomas Fingar, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Intelligence Research:

Q: Could you characterize your meeting with Bolton? Was he calm?

Fingar: No, he was angry. He was standing up.

Q: Did he raise his voice to you? Did he point his finger in your face? 

Fingar: I don't remember if he pointed. John speaks in such a low voice normally. Was it louder than normal? Probably. I wouldn't characterize it as screaming at me or anything like that. It was more, hands on hips, the body language as I recall it, I knew he was mad.

He was ''standing up'' with ''hands on hips''! Who's he think he is -- Carmen Miranda? Fortunately, before Bolton could let rip with a ''pursed lip'' or escalate to the lethal ''tsk-ing'' maneuver, Fingar was able to back cautiously out of the room and call the FBI anger management team, who surrounded the building and told the deranged diplomat to come out slowly with his hands above his hips.

Well, I haven't been so horrified since . . . well, since David Gest split from Liza Minnelli and launched a multimillion dollar suit for damages because she'd beaten him up. As ''The Daily Show's'' Jon Stewart observed, ''There is no conceivable amount of money worth telling the world that you were beaten up by Liza Minnelli.'' Likewise, whatever one's feelings about the U.N. and Kofi Annan and multilateralism, there's nothing that could get most self-respecting men to appear in front of a Senate committee and complain that Bolton put his hands on his hips. At least, Liza allegedly beat David to a pulp. True, she'd recently had two hip replacements, so if she'd slapped her hands on her hips, she'd have fallen to the ground howling in agony, and David could have run for his life. Or, indeed, strolled for his life, given that she was overweight, barely 5 feet tall and a decade his senior. But my point is: Even Gest might have balked at complaining about hands on hips.

Still, in the ever accelerating descent into parody of the Senate confirmation process, nothing is too trivial. By the time Boxer and Co. are through huffing about the need for anger management lessons, Two-Hips Bolton will be able to walk into every saloon in Dodge and the meanest hombres will be diving for cover behind the hoochie-koochie gals' petticoats before his pinky's so much as brushed his waist.

If the Senate poseurs and the media wanted to mount a trenchant critique of Bolton's geopolitical philosophy, that would be reasonable enough. But there's not even a pretense of any of that. Instead, his opponents have seized on one episode -- an intelligence analyst in a critical position with whom Bolton and others were dissatisfied -- and used it to advance the bizarre proposition that every junior official should be beyond reproach, and certainly beyond such aggressive ''body language'' as putting one's hands on hips. Or as Peter Beinart, editor of the New Republic, complained to the BBC the other night: Bolton was ''disloyal to his subordinates.''

It's been obvious for three years now that the torpid federal bureaucracies -- the agencies that so comprehensively failed America on 9/11 -- are resistant to meaningful reform, but Beinart, in demanding that the executive branch swear fealty to the most incompetent underling, distills the ''reform'' charade to its essence: We'll talk reform, we'll pass reform bills, we'll merge and de-merge and re-merge every so often, we'll change three-letter acronyms (INS) to four-letter acronyms (BCIS) just to show how serious we are, and a year or four down the line we may well get real tough and require five-letter acronyms.

But in the end we believe underperforming bureaucrats in key roles should be allowed to go on underperforming until retirement age. And, if you happen to show you're just the teensy-weensiest bit upset with one of them, we'll blow it up into a month of hearings on TV.

So vast battalions of America's ''public servants'' sit around all day cross-examining each other about some guy's unacceptably aggressive body language. He put his left hand in! His left hip out! In, out, in, out, he shook them all about! It's the hot dance craze we all do at the Sinister Neocon Conspiracy Initiation Ceremony:

''Ev'rybody's doin' a brand new dance now

C'mon, baby, do the loco-Bolton!''

If he doesn't get the nomination, he's got the makings of this summer's novelty hit, Neoconga No. 5:

''A little bit of fingering of my hips

A little bit of sneeriness on my lips

A little bit of rolling of both my eyes

A little bit of petulance in my sighs

A little bit of starting to almost mock

A little 'You so totally do not rock'

A little bit of memo on your desk

A little bit of you makes me Hulk-esque!''

And, if an underperforming bureaucrat winds up getting Atlanta or Dallas nuked, tough. Better that happen than that out-of-control nutcakes rampage around with hands on hips. After all, as National Review's John Derbyshire put it three years ago, deftly summing up the philosophy of this new war: Better dead than rude.

As for the job Bolton's up for, what would make Barbara Boxer and Joe Biden put their hands on hips? Child sex rings run from U.N. peacekeeping operations? Sudan sitting on the Human Rights Commission while it licenses mass murder in Darfur? Kofi Annan's son doing a $30,000-a-year job but somehow having a spare quarter-million dollars to invest in a Swiss soccer club? There are tides in the affairs of men when someone has to put his hands on his hips and toss his curls. And, if the present depraved state of the U.N. isn't one of them, nothing is. Unlike most of the multilateral blatherers, John Bolton is hip to that.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn17.html

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Bolton's just too hip for scaredy-cat Dems

April 17, 2005

BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Boy, this confirmation battle over John Bolton, the president's plain-spoken nominee for U.N. ambassador, is really heating up. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the Democratic Party's comely obstructionist, has charged that Bolton needs ''anger management lessons.''

I don't know about you, but nothing makes me want to hurl a chair through the window and punch someone's lights out like being told I need anger management lessons. So I was interested to hear about the kind of violent Boltonian eruptions that had led Boxer to her diagnosis. Well, here it comes. (If you've got young children present, you might want to take them out of the room.) From the shockingly brutal testimony of Thomas Fingar, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Intelligence Research:

Q: Could you characterize your meeting with Bolton? Was he calm?

Fingar: No, he was angry. He was standing up.

Q: Did he raise his voice to you? Did he point his finger in your face? 

Fingar: I don't remember if he pointed. John speaks in such a low voice normally. Was it louder than normal? Probably. I wouldn't characterize it as screaming at me or anything like that. It was more, hands on hips, the body language as I recall it, I knew he was mad.

He was ''standing up'' with ''hands on hips''! Who's he think he is -- Carmen Miranda? Fortunately, before Bolton could let rip with a ''pursed lip'' or escalate to the lethal ''tsk-ing'' maneuver, Fingar was able to back cautiously out of the room and call the FBI anger management team, who surrounded the building and told the deranged diplomat to come out slowly with his hands above his hips.

Well, I haven't been so horrified since . . . well, since David Gest split from Liza Minnelli and launched a multimillion dollar suit for damages because she'd beaten him up. As ''The Daily Show's'' Jon Stewart observed, ''There is no conceivable amount of money worth telling the world that you were beaten up by Liza Minnelli.'' Likewise, whatever one's feelings about the U.N. and Kofi Annan and multilateralism, there's nothing that could get most self-respecting men to appear in front of a Senate committee and complain that Bolton put his hands on his hips. At least, Liza allegedly beat David to a pulp. True, she'd recently had two hip replacements, so if she'd slapped her hands on her hips, she'd have fallen to the ground howling in agony, and David could have run for his life. Or, indeed, strolled for his life, given that she was overweight, barely 5 feet tall and a decade his senior. But my point is: Even Gest might have balked at complaining about hands on hips.

Still, in the ever accelerating descent into parody of the Senate confirmation process, nothing is too trivial. By the time Boxer and Co. are through huffing about the need for anger management lessons, Two-Hips Bolton will be able to walk into every saloon in Dodge and the meanest hombres will be diving for cover behind the hoochie-koochie gals' petticoats before his pinky's so much as brushed his waist.

If the Senate poseurs and the media wanted to mount a trenchant critique of Bolton's geopolitical philosophy, that would be reasonable enough. But there's not even a pretense of any of that. Instead, his opponents have seized on one episode -- an intelligence analyst in a critical position with whom Bolton and others were dissatisfied -- and used it to advance the bizarre proposition that every junior official should be beyond reproach, and certainly beyond such aggressive ''body language'' as putting one's hands on hips. Or as Peter Beinart, editor of the New Republic, complained to the BBC the other night: Bolton was ''disloyal to his subordinates.''

It's been obvious for three years now that the torpid federal bureaucracies -- the agencies that so comprehensively failed America on 9/11 -- are resistant to meaningful reform, but Beinart, in demanding that the executive branch swear fealty to the most incompetent underling, distills the ''reform'' charade to its essence: We'll talk reform, we'll pass reform bills, we'll merge and de-merge and re-merge every so often, we'll change three-letter acronyms (INS) to four-letter acronyms (BCIS) just to show how serious we are, and a year or four down the line we may well get real tough and require five-letter acronyms.

But in the end we believe underperforming bureaucrats in key roles should be allowed to go on underperforming until retirement age. And, if you happen to show you're just the teensy-weensiest bit upset with one of them, we'll blow it up into a month of hearings on TV.

So vast battalions of America's ''public servants'' sit around all day cross-examining each other about some guy's unacceptably aggressive body language. He put his left hand in! His left hip out! In, out, in, out, he shook them all about! It's the hot dance craze we all do at the Sinister Neocon Conspiracy Initiation Ceremony:

''Ev'rybody's doin' a brand new dance now

C'mon, baby, do the loco-Bolton!''

If he doesn't get the nomination, he's got the makings of this summer's novelty hit, Neoconga No. 5:

''A little bit of fingering of my hips

A little bit of sneeriness on my lips

A little bit of rolling of both my eyes

A little bit of petulance in my sighs

A little bit of starting to almost mock

A little 'You so totally do not rock'

A little bit of memo on your desk

A little bit of you makes me Hulk-esque!''

And, if an underperforming bureaucrat winds up getting Atlanta or Dallas nuked, tough. Better that happen than that out-of-control nutcakes rampage around with hands on hips. After all, as National Review's John Derbyshire put it three years ago, deftly summing up the philosophy of this new war: Better dead than rude.

As for the job Bolton's up for, what would make Barbara Boxer and Joe Biden put their hands on hips? Child sex rings run from U.N. peacekeeping operations? Sudan sitting on the Human Rights Commission while it licenses mass murder in Darfur? Kofi Annan's son doing a $30,000-a-year job but somehow having a spare quarter-million dollars to invest in a Swiss soccer club? There are tides in the affairs of men when someone has to put his hands on his hips and toss his curls. And, if the present depraved state of the U.N. isn't one of them, nothing is. Unlike most of the multilateral blatherers, John Bolton is hip to that.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn17.html

156107[/snapback]

Yeah, that's one hip dude, alright. That's the problem.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Maybe if the Dems were more open and tolerant, and not such narrow minded obstructionist, this country could be back on the right track.

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Maybe if the Dems were more open and tolerant, and not such narrow minded obstructionist, this country could bet back on the right track.

156113[/snapback]

Yeah, that's it. Republicans control the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme Court, but somehow it is the Dems fault the country can't get "back on the right track." The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Sounds like Bolton is quite the obstructionist himself:

John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.

In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...av=rss_politics

[Tigermike 3,050]

Yeah, that's it.  Republicans control the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme Court, but somehow it is the Dems fault the country can't get "back on the right track."  The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game.  Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything.  You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

156118[/snapback]

The irrational, out-of-touch with reality obstructionist, hate Bush and never ever work together for the good of the country but display their rancor at any opportunity game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the liberal and Democrat party's modus operandi quite well.

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Yeah, that's it.  Republicans control the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme Court, but somehow it is the Dems fault the country can't get "back on the right track."  The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game.  Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything.  You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

156118[/snapback]

The irrational, out-of-touch with reality obstructionist, hate Bush and never ever work together for the good of the country but display their rancor at any opportunity game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the liberal and Democrat party's modus operandi quite well.

156123[/snapback]

Dems have worked with Bush on alot of initiatives. You want a totalitarian state where there is no opposition party at all.

[Tigermike 3,050]

Yeah, that's it.  Republicans control the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme Court, but somehow it is the Dems fault the country can't get "back on the right track."  The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game.  Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything.  You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

156118[/snapback]

The irrational, out-of-touch with reality obstructionist, hate Bush and never ever work together for the good of the country but display their rancor at any opportunity game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the liberal and Democrat party's modus operandi quite well.

156123[/snapback]

Dems have worked with Bush on alot of initiatives. You want a totalitarian state where there is no opposition party at all.

156128[/snapback]

As usual you are wrong.

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Yeah, that's it.  Republicans control the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme Court, but somehow it is the Dems fault the country can't get "back on the right track."  The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game.  Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything.  You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

156118[/snapback]

The irrational, out-of-touch with reality obstructionist, hate Bush and never ever work together for the good of the country but display their rancor at any opportunity game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the liberal and Democrat party's modus operandi quite well.

156123[/snapback]

Dems have worked with Bush on alot of initiatives. You want a totalitarian state where there is no opposition party at all.

156128[/snapback]

As usual you are wrong.

156135[/snapback]

Another broad, unsubstantiated statement. Let's just focus on this one though-- where and how am I wrong?

[Tigermike 3,050]

Dems have worked with Bush on alot of initiatives.  You want a totalitarian state where there is no opposition party at all.

156128[/snapback]

You mean a another broad, unsubstantiated statement like the above?

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Dems have worked with Bush on alot of initiatives.  You want a totalitarian state where there is no opposition party at all.

156128[/snapback]

You mean a another broad, unsubstantiated statement like the above?

156186[/snapback]

I was thinking more along these lines:

never ever work together for the good of the country but display their rancor at any opportunity game.

Never is far from true. Even in the area of judges, Bush has 95% of his appointments approved. You seem to oppose any opposition at all.

[Tigermike 3,050]

What is the definition of is?

[TexasTiger 13,000]

What is the definition of is?

156192[/snapback]

That's all you've got?

[Tigermike 3,050]

As usual Tex you were the first to make a broad, unsubstantiated statement, like the one below.

Yeah, that's it. Republicans control the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme Court, but somehow it is the Dems fault the country can't get "back on the right track." The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

And with this one.

You want a totalitarian state where there is no opposition party at all.

Then as usual you want to start pointing fingers at others. Remember one thing, when you point a finger at someone, there are four pointed back at yourself.

[Auburn85 432]

Oh yeah, the dems work together for a few seconds and then when things go south , pull out the anti -Bush signs, shirts, buttons.

Yeah, ole Teddy and Bush were on the same side with No Child Left Behind, but when funding was cut, Teddy sure couldn't contain his criticism.

Then , the vote on the war.Kerry voted for the war, but God help him, Bush lied to him and he had no choice. They voted to go to war. Yet, allwe hear is Bush lied, no plan to win the peace, things are worse now than before, yadda yadda yadda

[AURaptor 1,126]

The irrational, out-of-touch with reality blame game. Whine, point fingers and take no responsibility for anything. You just illustrated the Republican party's modus operandi quite well.

Replace 'Republicans' with ' Democrats', and you've nailed it dead on. You're almost there, keep trying!

[Piglet 0]

Replace "Republicans" with "politicians in general", and you've nailed it dead on. If the charge is disingenuous partisan sniping, they're all guilty. As usual.

Here's Bush and his sycophants in the Senate nominating a guy to the UN who's on record as HATING the UN. That's like nominating an Islamic militant to be ambassador to Israel, or an orthodox Jew to Libya. It's an unnecessary diplomatic insult and a train wreck waiting to happen.

Sure, our UN representative should be willing to take them to task when they're out of line, like with this Congo sex scandal. But someone who's against the institution itself is going too far. In fact Bolton's so partisan that his denouncement of a real problem like the Congo operation is WEAKER than it would be from someone with actual honor. Plus, you have to wonder why someone who hates the UN that much would want the job in the first place.

And then you have the Democratic opposition, instead of focusing on the real issue, going after him on the grounds that he doesn't make them feel warm and fuzzy. What a bunch of wusses. They probably got mad at the 9/11 terrorists for flying United instead of an airline with better union relations.

Sometimes I just want to knock all their heads together. It would probably make a nifty 'bonnnnnnngggggggg' sound.

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Yeah, ole Teddy and Bush were on the same side with No Child Left Behind, but when funding was cut, Teddy sure couldn't contain his criticism.

156204[/snapback]

Kinda like the bank "approving" your mortgage, but then refusing to cut the check for the closing. Programs that rely on funding, well, rely on funding.

[Piglet 0]

Yeah, ole Teddy and Bush were on the same side with No Child Left Behind, but when funding was cut, Teddy sure couldn't contain his criticism.

156204[/snapback]

Kinda like the bank "approving" your mortgage, but then refusing to cut the check for the closing. Programs that rely on funding, well, rely on funding.

156235[/snapback]

I was kinda wondering about that, too. There's so much to hate Teddy for, why pick on him one of the few times he's right about something? even a stopped clock is right twice a day...

[Piglet 0]

OK, I take it back. Strange as it seems, it may be that Boxer is actually onto something here.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000484.html

John Bolton was actually voted down by senior partners of Bolton's law firm, Covington and Burling, where he worked before serving in the Department of Justice, because of concerns over his abusive behavior. An individual who would only speak anonymously shared the content of the super-secret partner's meeting with me yesterday.

In addition, after Bolton left the first Bush administration in 1993, he served on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom and engaged in not only abusive behavior inside that government agency but also worked hard to have two people with whom he disagreed fired. The victims -- who now work at other institutions in Washington -- are reticent about making public claims because of Bolton's continued ability to cause negative consequences for them and their fear that he will seek retribution.

Seems to me that a sharky law firm doesn't exactly expect the attorneys to be warm and fuzzy, so if he's too mean for them, I got some serious reservations about whether he's the right guy for international diplomacy.

[TexasTiger 13,000]

Bolton UN Nomination in Doubt as U.S. Senate Panel Delays Vote

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was thrown into doubt yesterday when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed a planned vote and decided to spend more time studying allegations that he mistreated subordinates.

Republicans were forced to agree to the delay, until at least May 9, after one of their number, George Voinovich of Ohio, said he wasn't ready to support Bolton. That left supporters of President George W. Bush's nomination one vote short of being able to recommend the nomination to the full Senate.

``There was enough brought out here that caused me some real concerns'' about Bolton's ``interpersonal skills,'' Voinovich said in an interview. ``I came in here and was prepared to vote'' for Bolton, he said, but Democrats ``raised legitimate issues'' and didn't appear to be acting politically.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...aVxX1k&refer=us

[AURaptor 1,126]

Don't the Dems remember ?

It's Hip to be square!