Cut From Cheney's Cloth (Cohen in WP re: Bolton)

[struggle4progress]

By Richard Cohen

Thursday, April 28, 2005; Page A23

When it comes to the nomination of John Bolton to be our guy at the United Nations, the mystery is not why a U.N.-hater was chosen or why someone with the management skills of the late Alphonse Capone was tabbed or even why so undiplomatic a chap would be picked for the most diplomatic of all posts. Rather, it is why he was not first awarded a presidential medal and fulsomely praised by none other than George Bush himself. Bolton has been that wrong.

"That wrong" is a high standard indeed. It is the standard of George "Slam-Dunk" Tenet, the former CIA director who managed to tell the president precisely what he wanted to hear: that Iraq was awash with the most awful weapons of mass destruction, all of them so advanced and futuristic we still can't see them. It is the standard of Condi Rice, who made similar assurances to the nation, and, of course, of Colin Powell, who told the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons galore -- so many weapons in so many secret, mobile locations that had the expression not already been used, I would call it a slam-dunk.

Most important, it is the standard of Dick Cheney, who not only said Iraq had "reconstituted" its nuclear weapons program but insisted on it even after U.N. inspectors had concluded otherwise. Earlier, Cheney had said it was "pretty well confirmed" that Mohamed Atta, the lead Sept. 11 terrorist, had met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence official. It has since been pretty well confirmed that no such meeting took place.

Bolton was hardly a departure from such smoke-blowing. He was wrong not only about Iraq but about Syria and Cuba as well -- a trifecta of bad judgment. In all these cases, he apparently -- or so goes the gravamen of the allegation -- goosed the intelligence data to fit his views, sometimes browbeating subordinates to go along. This, of course, is the mark of a juvenile personality who, when his way of thinking is rejected, simply raises his voice. He attempts to do with volume what he cannot do with reason. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042701875.html

[Trajan]

1. THAT, is a powerful condemnation ....

Cohen lays it all out .... "a trifecta of bad judgement" ... "This, of course, is the mark of a juvenile personality who, when his way of thinking is rejected, simply raises his voice. He attempts to do with volume what he cannot do with reason."

Brilliant .....

[Frances]

2. Richard Cohen is finally coming to his senses

Like so many northeasterners, Cohen was seduced by Southern charm. Before the 2000 election, he wrote an article praising Bush's personality. Now he is seeing just how dark the underside of that "charm" is.

Being a charming Southerner myself, I wanted to write and warn Cohen of what lay ahead, but I knew he had to find out for himself.

[grasswire]

3. did he call Cheney a "nut"?

I think so.