John Bolton In His Own Words: Bush's UN Ambassador Nominee Condemns United Nations

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that every Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to reject John Bolton's nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations. This would mark the first time that committee Democrats unanimously opposed a diplomatic selection by President Bush. It could also put Bush's nomination in peril if any Republicans defected to vote against Bolton. Several groups opposed to Bolton have launched campaigns to urge Republican Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island to vote against his nomination. Chafee is the most moderate Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Meanwhile, a group of former U.S. diplomats and other high level officials have called for the Senate to reject John Bolton's nomination to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 59 former diplomats and other officials have signed an open letter outlining their views to Senator Richard Lugar. Lugar is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which will hold hearings on Bolton's nomination on April 7. Bolton has been one of the fiercest critics of the United Nations within the Bush administration. The letter to Senator Lugar states that Bolton "is the wrong man for this position" and cites Bolton's insistence that the U.N. is valuable only when it directly serves the United States- as cause for concern. That view, they stated, would undermine negotiation efforts with other diplomats at the U.N. At the announcement of Bolton's nomination on March 7th, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described him as "a tough-minded diplomat" with "a proven track record of effective multilateralism."

We are joined in the studio by one of the people who signed the letter to Senator Lugar, Spurgeon Keeny. We are also joined by Don Kraus who is the Executive Vice President of Citizens for Global Solutions. They have just released footage of John Bolton from more than 10 years ago where he was speaking at an event called the "Global Structures Convocation," held on February 3, 1994 in New York.

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