Look Closely...
This is a picture of the UN Security Council voting for a resolution to instruct Syria to cooperate with them. (A silly vote to take, in practical terms (since Syria is already supposed to do this, and it's just saying, "No, really, we mean it,") but a very important vote diplomatically nonetheless.)
I would draw your attention to the man in a mustache and striped tie, over on the left. Who is that?
Oh, why, it's John Bolton. Not voting. And that woman raising her hand? That's Condoleezza Rice. Voting for the US.
Why? If we don't like, or don't trust, Bolton enough to vote on our interests, why on earth did we make him our UN Rep? I mean, it's not exactly like he was loved by the rest of the world (or, indeed, by many of us here at home). And if this is to show the world we're serious about working with them (and so we send our Secretary of State, a thing that the BBC claims), don't you think we could make that point a little bit more publicly so that the world actually hears it?
Anyhow, I think the photo is interesting.
posted by Skay @ 9:12 PM
2 Comments:
I heard someone (I forget who) suggest that Miers's withdrawal of her Supreme Court nomination was the first sign that the Bush presidency was in its lame-duck phase. Maybe the Bolton nomination was an earlier sign?
That could be. If so, it would be rather an early onset of the phase... but as it is (with Miers, Libby, Katrina, etc) I think we are seeing lame duck happening quite soon in the second term.
That said, Bush has a way of not accepting what everybody else says about him. He pushes through what he thinks impressively (if disturbingly) well, and the Alito nomination may prove that he's still got the power to get things done. Pending, perhaps, a Rove indictment...
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