Kerry hammers new UN pick

[politicasista]

3/7/2005
Exclusive: Senator Kerry hammers new UN pick as “baggage we cannot afford”

Kerry slashes Bush’s new UN pick; Reid offers more muted critique

RAW STORY

In a release issued this afternoon, former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said President Bush’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations was “baggage we cannot afford,” RAW STORY has learned.

“I recognize John Bolton’s long service to our country, but this is just about the most inexplicable appointment the President could make to represent the United States to the world community,” Sen. Kerry will assert.

“If the President is serious about reaching out to the world, why would he choose someone who has expressed such disdain for working with our allies?” Kerry will tell the press. “Mr. Bolton once said ‘if the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.’ Mr. Bolton once celebrated our failure to win the U.N.’s support for the Iraq invasion as ‘further evidence to many why nothing more should be paid to the U.N. system.’ Now we’re supposed to believe he’s the right person to represent the United States at the United Nations?”

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=157

[GRLMGC]

1. What.the.fuck

I hate Bush so much. Does he really, really want the rest of the world to hate us? It's pretty clear that he does.

[ginnyinWI]

3. the less diplomacy works, the more excuses for wars.

And the more wars, the more a) money for the military-industrial complex, and b) fearful voters who want to vote in the "daddy" party. :grr: :grr: :nuke:

[JI7]

2. nice to see this, i hope it gets more attention

[JohnKleeb]

4. Bolton sounds like a prick, good for Kerry and others if they are doing

this too.

[karynnj]

5. Does this prove Bush is not even trying to get along

with the rest of the world. Kerry's comments are great and Reid's seem to be the same issues expressed less strenuously. No one can say he's not speaking clearly on this - his examples of Bolton's anti-UN comments really show why he's horrible.

It doesn't say where the picture is from, but he looks as angry as these comments sound.

[GRLMGC]

6. Yeah, it does prove that

Either that or he's really, really stupid. Or, of course, it could be a little bit from category A and a little bit from category B.

[JohnKleeb]

7. Its definely both

He loves to alienate the world but hes also the same guy who once refered to himself as the first lady.

[LeftyLizzie]

12. Bush is just giving the rest of the world the middle finger

This just further separates us from everyone else. What possible good reason could he have for appointing such a person, other than to say, "Screw you, we don't care" to the UN and the rest of the world?

[whometense]

15. That's how I see it too.

He's not even trying to sugarcoat it anymore.

[ginnyinWI]

8. an old enemy of Kerry's, it would seem

from one of the commenters at Raw Story--Bolton is an old Iran-Contra foe of Kerry's. No wonder--it would make my blood boil, too!

[karynnj]

9. Seeing all these people who should have been disgraced for

life must be like a nightmare to Kerry.

[GRLMGC]

10. It's a nightmare for all of us who actually care about humanity

Good Lord, it's so maddening!

[politicasista]

11. I agree.

[cestpaspossible]

13. All Senators should vote NO on his confirmation.

[LeftyLizzie]

14. They SHOULD, but will they?

Pretty much all of the Republicans, and even a few of the Democrats, don't seem to mind voting just about anybody through. A lot of folks in there (mostly Repubs.) don't have the balls to stand up for what's right because they're so beholden to the Bush Admin.

[JohnKleeb]

16. has a republican ever voted against any of Bush's nominees btw?

[cestpaspossible]

25. That's a good question

but unfortunately , I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

[karynnj]

27. Hagel and Lugar seem not too happy with him

From the NYT, Hagel said:

We need alliances, we need friends," he said of the United Nations, adding that while reforming the organization was important, "To go up there and kick the U.N. around doesn't get the job done."

Later in the article it said an unnamed source said that Lugar had informally told the administrtion that Bolton would not be confirmed for deputy secretary of state.

Nothing here asys they won't confirm him for this position, but Hagel's comment is pretty strong if he intends to vote for him. If Lugar and Hagel and all the Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee vote against him, doesn't this die in committee.

[TayTay]

17. A couple of comments

(Parenthetical aside comes first here. Whoever called for someone to 'restrain the candidate' when the SBVT came out with the ads last August should be taken out and shot, metaphorically speaking. I love it when Kerry speaks his mind. I like the unrestrained voice. Ahm, mui macho too!)

Kerry has been very, very consistent in this 109th (weasel) Congress. He has condemned Condiliar and Torture Boy for sound reasons that involve sheer incompetence, moral ineptitude and disregard for world opinion. In interviews given after Kerry's foreign trip in Jan, he advised the * Admin to go to foreign leaders and ask for help. Kerry said that the * Admin would be very pleasantly surprised at the results. Kerry was, of course, ignored.

Now, * nominates another 'America only' guy to head our delegation to the UN. (What a guy!) I don't blame Kerry for being angry. Bolton is a neocon, a bastard and another sub-par nominee who will do nothing to repair America's image in the world and will only harden world opinion against the US. Sigh! I hope that Kerry fights this guy tooth and nail both in the Foreign Relations Committee and on the floor. (I would pay money to see the FRComm hearing in person. Between Kerry and Boxer, oh wow! No wonder I saw Kerry with Boxer on the Senate floor tonight talking. They are probably going to map out another questioning strategy for when this nominee gets to Committee.)

[karynnj]

28. Agree with you on the unrestrained voice

especially because he seems to become more focused, more articulate, more obviously genuine, and more compelling. Kerry unrestrained seems to have an internal restraint that allows him to make tough accusations while still sounding polite and reasonable.

At the end of the campaign, when he was talking about the high efficiency explosives that were left unguarded for weeks, the sincerity and purity of his outrage had to be obvious to anyone who heard the sound bites played - it's just to bad that didn't stay the topic for the last 3 or 4 days. Although, if he was in this mode from March on, it may have been people would have seen him as more an excellent, articulate protester than as Presidential.

[TayTay]

18. More Bolton info

I saw at Dkos, then went through to this link:

http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/neo-conservatism/bolton.html

Supported the Nicaraguan "contras" during the Reagan era. "Undermine efforts by Sen. John Kerry to investigate drug smuggling and gunrunning by the contras," and was "put in charge of stonewalling Congressional efforts to obtain Justice Department documents and interview Meese's deputies about their role in the Iran-Contra scandal."

I wonder if the * Admin did this partly to piss off John Kerry. I wouldn't put it past them. They hate Kerry every bit as much as he hates them. And Kerry has been on fire in the committee hearings. That I can download because I have that big DB at work. Why aren't these committee hearing transcripts publicly available yet on the committee websites. This is wrong. Like the SBA hearing. WFT? :wtf: They held that in a committee room that wasn't even wired for sound, so you couldn't even listen to it. WTF? :wtf: I am dying to post from the transcripts, but they ain't public yet. Just rich people and DB's can access them from private sources. This is wrong. (And that SBA hearing was great. As was the HHS Hearing with Leavitt in which Kerry basically called Leavitt a liar and a fraud for submitting a false budget that was a scam. Sigh! Loved that Senator. :loveya:

[ginnyinWI]

19. no good deed goes unpunished with this adm.

Condi: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too! Try to vote against my confirmation, will you? Try to nail me to the wall with piercingly honest questions, will you? Now you will pay...we're going to put Bolton in, and you just see what you can do about it!!! bwahahahahaha......"

[elshiva]

20. Neocons HATE the UN, they

call it the "JEW-N":puke: Bolton is the guy that will unite the members of the UN against the US. Brilliant, Bush, just fucking brilliant.

[JohnKleeb]

21. Yeah Ive heard that

and they claim to be the friends of the Jews, its just sick to see Jews fall in for the neo con right wing fundie trap when you know damn well they hate the Jews, I am not Jewish myself but I aint stupid.

[elshiva]

22. Neocons only "support" Israel for

the sake of the rapture. Supposedly, they believe, the Jews will have to convert at the rapture or be wiped out. Just sick!

[JohnKleeb]

23. Yes its very scary to me honestly

[elshiva]

24. Scary that they call that rapture business Christian while

it's just some cultic bullshit. Heaven is not a country club with a "No Jews, No Muslims" sign on it.

[karynnj]

30. Most Jews are not neo-cons

About 75% of the Jewish population (per the exit polls) voted for Kerry. Although a large percent of the prominent neo-cons are Jewish, it is definitely not true that majority of Jews are neo-cons. At least among the people I know, there is some embarrassment that people like Wolfowitz are Jewish.

Although my Rabbi scrupulously did not endorse a candidate, one of her High Holy Days' sermons was on voting Jewish values. The gist of the speech was in the form of (campaign issue),(related Jewish concept). Every issue she mentioned was phrased to Kerry's favor. The Jewish value she emphasized the most was, Tikun Olam, usually described as repair of the world which is the basis for most social action. At a Break Fast (where you eat after fasting on Yom Kippur) at least at my table there was a lot of talk about the election. The support for Kerry was considerably more positive than on DU.

Every discussion I heard in the fall at the synagogue or related to it was anti-Bush. Yiddish insult words were used to refer to Bush that I never heard before. My husband knew most of them and translated them for me later - though the content sufficed.

After an article on Neo-cons was printed in our local Jewish newspaper, we exchanged emails with the editor. He took pains to insure us that although they can't endourse anyone, they did not agree with Bush and the next issue (the last before the election)would have articles on social issues. He then took our email and fashioned it into a LTE and gave it a better title than we had (Inspire, don't inflame) and printed it as the top LTE that week.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

26. Fuck this shit!

I'm so goddamned tired of the asshole-in-chief destroying our reputation and our country. Has the chimp ever made a good a good decision his entire time in office?

[TayTay]

29. Welcome, Welcome

Nice to see you here Jaredh!

Pull up a chair, have some fun!