Spinning Bolton

Two examples of spin to save the Bolton nomination. On CNN's weekly embarrassment, The Capital Gang, one panelist argues that the defect of the Bolton nomination, in the eyes of the opponents, is that Bolton has just been too much a defender of Bush's policies. Indeed, he has been such a good defender of Bush's policy that "liberals" like Colin Powell cannot stand to see him take office. One would not want to think to much as this nonsensical view because Bolton often put himself in a position of trying to undermine not promote Bush's declared policies.

William Kristol argues that the opposition to Bolton is a farce since it now turns on Bolton losing his temper and being rude.

Ignored by both commenters, accidentally I am sure, is fact that Bolton actively sought to shape intelligence to his often screwy ideas that were undersupported by the considered views of the intel community. His loses of temper and his general intemperance as a senior official were often revealed in moments when he was trying to cook intelligence or intimidate an official who sought to temper his speech texts with an empirically supported judgment or two.

The Borking of Bolton: "The assault on John Bolton, on the other hand, seems to be a farce. The notion that bureaucratic infighting and occasional abruptness of manner should disqualify one from high office is laughable. Unable to defeat Bolton in a debate on the merits of the foreign policies he has advocated or implemented, the Democrats, the media, and some in the foreign policy establishment have resorted to a childish form of character assassination. Bolton disagreed with--he even disliked!--a couple of bureaucrats. He challenged them. But no one has really accused Bolton of doing anything fundamentally inappropriate. In fact, so far as anyone can tell, there seem to have been almost no formal management complaints filed against him--and very few informal ones--in his 16 years in government, which is fairly amazing."

Here is one example that show the complaints about Bolton do not turn on whether he was "abrupt".