Why Bush Will Appoint Bolton

George W. Bush will put John Bolton into the United Nations as America's Ambassador this week. In a recess appointment that will go against all Senate Democrats and many in his own party -- who have publicly and privately called upon him to withdraw the nomination – President Bush will appoint Bolton to a role that he is wholly unqualified to assume at a time when we don't need any more diplomatic screw-ups.

Dispatching Bolton to the U.N. without a Senate vote will send the world a message that, at this point, really won't be that surprising: That in addition to not caring what the rest of the world thinks, Bush also doesn't give a damn what the majority of United States Senators think of his controversial choice.

Such an appointment would end when the next session of Congress begins in January of 2007.

But Bolton has proven himself to be a man whose mouth can cause a lot of diplomatic problems in an amazingly short amount of time. In addition, he was shown just last week to have lied about the extent to which he was questioned by the State Department in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame by the White House.

Some would say that there's no way Bush would make such a move, given that he would be infuriating Senate Democrats whom he must count on for some tiny degree of support to get John Roberts Jr. confirmed to the Supreme Court.

I'm not convinced that will stop this president.

George W. Bush doesn't truly believe in that advise-and-consent function of our democracy and, as he said in December 2000, "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

This president doesn't do things because they are wise or because he should. George W. Bush does things simply because he can.

For that reason alone, John R. Bolton will soon be sitting in the United Nations.