The WaPo:
Former defense secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, ex-CIA director R. James Woolsey and 64 other retired arms control specialists and diplomats are lined up in support of John R. Bolton, whose nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has stirred controversy.
In a letter being delivered today to Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, other committee members and congressional leaders, they said the attack on Bolton is really an attack on President Bush's policies.
The counterattack, organized by Frank J. Gaffney , a Pentagon official in the Reagan administration, said Bolton "has distinguished himself throughout a long and multifaceted career."
And the best argument for his confirmation?
"... (The) critics of Bolton's positions on arms control treaties are "misdirected" because his views "are identical" to those of Bush..."
Well, that's good right? Because everyone knows W is really into securing those Russian loose nukes.
"The 9/11 Commission and leading nonproliferation experts say that the administration has been too lax in securing nuclear weapons and materials in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union..."
Ooopse.
Well, anyway, "Jesse Helms endorsed Bolton: "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world."
Wow, Jesse Helms. Most people would agree, that's a mainstream endorsement. Most diplomats at the U.N. would be pretty inpressed by that.
Stupid diplomats! What do they know about Armageddon? What do they have to do with the U.N.?
59 of them have sent a letter to Richard Logar, too.
"He is the wrong man for this position," they said... ,
"We urge you to reject that nomination,"
Others who signed the letter include James F. Leonard, deputy ambassador to the U.N. in the Ford and Carter administrations; Princeton N. Lyman, ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton; Monteagle Stearns, ambassador to Greece and Ivory Coast in the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations; and Spurgeon M. Keeny Jr., deputy director of the Arms Control Agency in the Carter administration.
Their criticism dwelled primarily on Bolton's stand on issues as the State Department's senior arms control official.
They said he had an "exceptional record" of opposing U.S. efforts to improve national security through arms control."
Whatever!
Posted by bushmeister0
at 10:58 AM EDT
