[Dialogue] Mr. Bolton Resigns

[Harry Wainwright]

 <http://www.nytimes.com/>  <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/> 

 




  _____  

December 5, 2006

Editorial

Mr. Bolton Resigns 

John Bolton's decision to resign as America's envoy to the United Nations
was a wise move. He averted a distracting and divisive fight at a time when
both Congress and the Bush administration have better things to do. He has
also provided President Bush with an opportunity to show the kind of
bipartisan leadership he talks about so frequently and exercises so seldom.

This page opposed Mr. Bolton's nomination in the first place, arguing that
at the very minimum, an ambassador to the United Nations should be someone
who believed the organization deserved to exist. Mr. Bolton has always been
hostile to the U.N., and to the whole spirit of consensus-seeking diplomacy
it embodies. When Democrats and moderate Republicans kept the nomination
tied up in the Senate, Mr. Bush characteristically insisted on having his
own way by giving Mr. Bolton an interim appointment while Congress was out
of session.

But the interim appointment was about to expire, and the battle would have
had to begin all over again once the new Congress arrived. Attempts to get
the lame duck Senate to confirm Mr. Bolton ran aground when Lincoln Chafee,
the Republican senator from Rhode Island, refused to support the nomination
in the Foreign Relations Committee, leaving Mr. Bolton's fate hung up on a
tie vote. 

Mr. Chafee is the prime example of a moderate Republican who was popular
with his constituents but who lost his seat because of Mr. Bush's hard-edge
partisanship and insistence on having his own way in Iraq. The White House
was left contemplating schemes to keep Mr. Bolton at work without Senate
confirmation - like making him deputy ambassador and leaving the top job
unfilled.

The United Nations doesn't need any further proof of how little the Bush
administration thinks of it. And the Bush administration doesn't need to
insult the world at a time when it is becoming increasingly clear how much
help the United States needs to stabilize Afghanistan, extricate itself from
Iraq, and curb the nuclear appetites of North Korea and Iran. Mr. Bolton's
withdrawal gives the president a chance to improve his relationship with
both the U.N. and Congress. There are plenty of experienced,
internationalist Republicans who could get near-unanimous support in the
Senate and send a signal to the world that Mr. Bush understands that the
United States is not the only nation on the planet whose opinion matters. 

 

Copyright <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>
2006 The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>  

 

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