Bolton's not just a bad boss, he's inept

Democrats and moderate Republicans have delayed the vote over John Bolton's confirmation as ambassador to the U.N. Some have hammered Bolton over his erratic and vindictive management (moving a CIA analyst who disagreed with his assessment of Cuba). Others have pointed out his dismissive and adversarial comments about the U.N ("If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference"). But far more substantive are Bolton's failures in his job in the State Department to prevent the proliferation of WMD (link requires New Republic subscription).

In his current position at State, Bolton's job is to lead the effort to stop WMD proliferation. Yet less weapons-grade nuclear material was secured in the two years after September 11 than in the two years before it. North Korea has gone from having two nuclear bombs to having as many as eight. (As former 9/11 Commission staffer Warren Bass put it, "two bombs is a deterrent; eight is a commodity.") Iran's mullahs have stepped up their efforts to go nuclear, and the United States appears impotent to stop them. And Bolton has been credited with killing the Biological Weapons Convention.

Not only have Bush and Bolton cut funding for the Nunn-Lugar program to halt the spread of nuclear materials and expertise from the former Soviet Union, Bolton also has failed to finalize a Plutonium Disposition Agreement with Russia that could lead to the elimination of 70 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. And Bolton's biggest accomplishment in this area, the Proliferation Security Initiative--an effort to intercept shipments of WMD technology and delivery systems--looks better on paper than in practice because Russia and China are not participating.

John Bolton talks big, and delivers little. Bolton seems like an outspoken advocate until you look at his record. He's like a father driving down the road yelling and screaming at his kids until the crashes. Was it the kids who caused the accident? Or was it the vein-popping hissy-fit thrown by the guy behind the wheel? We want disagreement in the State Department. We don't want the yes-men who snoozed through al-Qaeda's build-up to reign over our intelligence. But that's just it -- Bolton's unpredictability and his lack of follow-through makes us less safe, period.