Show Bolton the Door

You see, I just squeeze those diplomats a little around the neck when they step out of line. - John Bolton, candidate for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Mark Shields has a great intro to his piece on CNN today about why John Bolton should not be approved as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations:

Tell me that Bob Jones III, the president of the segregationist South Carolina university of the same name, has been nominated as chairman of the Civil Rights Commission.

Tell me that Father Dan Berrigan, the antiwar Jesuit priest, had just been named commandant of the Marine Corps or that Sir Elton John will be the new president of the Teamsters Union.

But don't tell me that the United States Senate, which likes to be called "the world's greatest deliberative body" will vote to confirm President Bush's pick of John Bolton to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In no way can a bully and a belligerent fool become the United States' ambassador to the world. Incredible. Then again, George Bush is a little hard of hearing. Maybe it's all that brush clearing his does on his ranch in Crawford. Hard work. Being president's hard work.