BBC Bush Bash Gets It Wrong

December 4th, 2006 10:40 PM

The BBC reports that John Bolton had to leave the UN due to a weakened Bush and Republican set backs in the November election. While those facts are true, a responsible reporting organization should know that Bolton failed to be confirmed prior to the election.

If the November 7 results had produced the exact same composition in the Senate, Bolton still wouldn't have been confirmed. In fact, he might have been confirmed in the last session were it not for weakness, not of Bush, but a Republican headed out of the Senate - Mr. Chafee, I presume.

Anything to keep the meme going, Democrats up, Republicans down. And of course it's all Bush's fault. The article also contains praise for Bolton from the Chinese Ambassador.

He is a casualty of the wider weakness of the Bush White House.

President Bush's UN ambassador is resigning his post because he cannot get Senate backing to stay in the job.

Bolton was appointed on a temporary basis

If Mr Bush's Republican Party had kept control of the Senate in last month's elections, they might have been able to get John Bolton confirmed.

But those Democrats who oppose him have the wind in their sails and they made it clear that the nomination was dead.