Sour Grapes

Bolton's style at the UN

Yesterday's New York Times has a piece on U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing this this week on Bolton�s renomination (his was originally a recess appointment, because the administration didn't have the votes for Senate confirmation). At least one former opponent, Senator George V. Voinovich (R) of Ohio, has been won over by Bolton's performance. But many UN diplomats are not happy with Bolton, particularly when he's pushing his personal agenda of reforming the UN. The Times article cites the following incident.

Six ambassadors separately offered similar accounts of an incident in June that they said captured the situation. All were from nations in Europe, the Pacific and Latin America that consider themselves close allies of the United States, and they asked to speak anonymously in commenting on a fellow envoy.

Mr. Bolton that day burst into a packed committee hall, produced a cordless microphone and began to lecture envoys from developing nations about their weakening of a proposal to tighten management of the United Nations, his chief goal.

Gaveled to silence, he threw up his hands and said, "Well, so much for trying something different."

It was not merely rude, the ambassadors said. One recalled that moments later, his BlackBerry flashed a message from another envoy working on management change. "He just busted us apart," it read.

Remind me again: why do they hate us so? [Thanks to today's Capitol Hill Blue.]

Original post by Hugh at 7/24/2006 07:14:00 PM Eastern time :: 0 comment(s) :: links to this post

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