As my dad said this morning, it’s like the rats are all leaving the ship. Whatever could it mean? I told him it was obvious: BushCo is a rotten ship ridden with rats, from King Rat George the Dubya on down.
Well, one more is now in the drink, and frantically paddling as fast as his four legs will take him. Only he looks more like an Old English Sheepdog than a rat.
The controversial US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is to leave his post, the White House says.
Mr Bolton looked unable to win the necessary Senate support for him to continue in the job, which he had obtained on a temporary basis.
Critics have questioned factors including his abrasive style at the UN.
Mr Bolton’s move comes after US defence chief Donald Rumsfeld resigned following the Republican defeat in last month’s mid-term elections.
The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Joe Biden, said he saw “no point in considering Mr Bolton’s nomination again”.
The White House said President George W Bush had “reluctantly” accepted Mr Bolton’s move to step down at the end of the current Congress session in January.
Mr Bush said he was “deeply disappointed that a handful” of senators were blocking Mr Bolton’s confirmation.
The departure would disrupt US diplomatic work at a sensitive time, the president said.
The news comes days before a bipartisan panel is expected to suggest the US should begin talking to Iran and Syria, an initiative Mr Bolton has opposed.
Trust the bass-ackward Bushies to appoint an undiplomatic clod like Bolton to be their country’s chief diplomat to the world. Anyone with a brain would not even have him on their list, but remember, kids, this IS BushCo we’re talking about.
“Controversial” is really not the word for this choice, either; there is no controversy about his being utterly unfit for the job.
Correspondents say Mr Bolton personified Washington’s view of the UN as an institution that was viewed as being wasteful and ineffective at best – and inimical to America’s wider global interests at worst.
Mr Bolton’s critics said a man who once declared there was “no such thing” as the UN was hardly a suitable choice to join the body.
His nomination incensed many former US ambassadors – 102 of whom signed a letter urging senators to reject his nomination.
When career diplomats say you’re no good for the job, trust me–you’re no damn good. These are people who’ve built their working lives around the delicate business of not pissing other countries off, and then along comes the Sheepdog, basically lifting his leg on the entire planet. Especially those parts of it that are well within their rights to say the US is imperialistic and at best hypocritical. Good luck getting them back onside! He’s undone what it’s taken those ambassadors decades to do–build up trust in the US as an ally.
Who wants to trust a country whose leader is stupid enough to appoint someone who basically advocates terrorism against the United Nations as a mode of “reform”?
