Hallelujah! Bolton's Gone!

John Bolton has resigned as U.S. ambassador to the UN and I couldn't be happier for America. Steve Clemons was right last fall when he said that Bolton's chances for confirmation were all but dead in the water. There have been few positive reviews of Bolton's performance on behalf of the American people at the UN, and I want to publicly thank outgoing Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island for refusing to cave in to the Senate confirmation of Mr. Bolton. * I don't call it a reconfirmation because Bolton wasn't confirmed the first time - he was thrown in by a Bush recess appointment.

Three months ago, while Senate confirmation of Bolton looked unlikely, I blogged some thoughts about Bolton, including this:

John Bolton has been carrying the ball for President Bush at the U.N. The failure of his conformation leads us to see that the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are seeing the value of the return to tradional diplomacy, which has been appropriately utilized by every Oval Office predecessor of George W. Bush.

The question is: After so many wasted years, with whom will Bush replace Bolton?

A Raw Story article reveals, through information extracted from a recent Roll Call article, that Sen. Harry Reid has a plan that is a "back-door way of preventing President Bush from unilaterally installing controversial nominees in key executive and judicial branch posts through recess appointments."