Mike Boyer over at Foreign Policy Magazine‘s Passport blog just offered a number of sensible reasons why John Bolton probably would not be appointed by a President McCain to serve as Secretary of State.
Boyer is right on the whole — though he need not worry about classifying Bolton as a neocon. He is not. He’s a pugnacious nationalist cut in the shape of Jesse Helms who is allied with the neoconservatives.
But the bummer in Boyer’s piece is that not only would a Bolton appointment be a huge boon for The Washington Note and its collaborators who would love to derail Bolton’s nomination for another diplomatic post. Such a loss for McCain would be crippling — just as Bill Clinton learned in some early missteps in his early tenure.
Bottom line — Boyer is right. Bolton probably won’t get the appointment.
But there are many reasons why if the GOP wins in November an early White House effort to get Bolton back on the government payroll (in a Senate confirmed slot) could be good for the country — particularly as the White House’s opposition remembers how to stall the Executive Branch.
— Steve Clemons
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