Goodnight, Bolton



(image via telegraph)

Interim Ambassador John Bolton is as good as gone (The Corsair sips a Joseph Drouhin Domaine de Vaudon Chablis 2000). We have always been of mixed feelings about him. Yes, he will probably write a sucky "Ambassador's Journal," magnificently less literate than Daniel Patrick Moynihan's. And, yes, the execrable New York Sun will publish breathless excerpts. In it he will be the odd man out, Our Man in Sodom, fighting, against all odds, to make the Middle East safe for Jerusalem.

Still, Bolton for all his faults -- and his unfortunate moustache -- may have been the right person at the right time. The United Nations is absurdly top-heavy with arcane burocracy. And every so often the United Nations needs a scolding, and in that role Bolton excelled.

As the Lebabon crisis and North Korea highlighted, the world needs the UN. And, perhaps, the UN -- at this historical tipping point -- needed Bolton. Leaving after a stunning victory over cockblocking Chavez's struggle for a Security Council Seat is not a bad way to go, all told.