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April 4, 2005
Lined up to Support John Bolton
Last week some 59 ex-diplomats sent a letter to Senator Lugar opposing John Bolton's appointment as UN ambassador. Among other things, Bolton was criticized for saying that the UN was valuable only when it directly serves the United States.
This week some 64 retired diplomats and government officials sent a letter to Senator Lugar supporting Bolton.
Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, ex-CIA Director James Woolsey and 64 other retired arms-control specialists and diplomats are lined up in support of John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.Last week's letter was usually described as "bipartisan" according to the Weekly Standard's Scrapbook column (as quoted in the Washington Times). Yet that was hardly the case.
In a letter scheduled to be delivered today to Sen. Richard G. Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, other committee members and congressional leaders, they said the attack on Mr. Bolton is really an attack on President Bush's policies, the Associated Press reports.
...
Bolton supporters said his stance "reflects a clear-eyed necessity of the real limits" of accords with other nations that demand one-sided terms from the United States. They included Max Kampelman and Edward Rowny, arms-control negotiators in the Reagan administration
Much of the news coverage of the letter inanely treated the group as 'bipartisan,' noting that the former diplomats had 'served in both Democratic and Republican administrations' -- as is true of any Foreign Service officer with a career of normal duration. Which is to say, this fact tells you nothing special about the political views of the diplomats. As it happens, their politics run the gamut from left to farther left, and their letter is thus an ordinary partisan swipe at the nominee of a president they dislike.
Posted by Tom at April 4, 2005 9:29 AM
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