WASHINGTON – Lacking the votes to keep his job, embattled U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said Monday he would resign, a defeat for a chagrined President Bush who had clung to hopes of Senate confirmation.
Bolton got the position in August 2005, appointed by Bush when Congress was in recess. With that temporary assignment about to expire, and his long fight for confirmation going nowhere, Bolton made it official.
He handed in a resignation letter that did not mention the political fight behind it. It said simply: “I have concluded that my service in your administration should end when the current recess appointment expires.”
“I accepted. I’m not happy about it,” Bush said Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, with Bolton at his side. Bush did not name a replacement, and officials offered no timetable for an announcement.
Bush considered Bolton a strong voice as the U.N. dealt with crises in Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea and other complex matters around the world. Bolton also pushed the administration’s effort to reform the United Nations.
Democrats, though, said Bolton’s resignation signaled a fresh start.
“Hopefully, this change marks a shift from the failed go-it-alone strategies that have left America less safe,” said the incoming Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
“With the Middle East on the verge of chaos and the nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea increasing, we need a United Nations ambassador who has the full support of Congress and can help rally the international community to tackle the serious threats we face,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
Bolton, a 57-year-old arms control expert, came to the job with a reputation for brilliance, obstinacy and speaking his mind – and with a mission to reform the 61-year-old world body born in the ashes of World War II.
By his own account, Bolton remains frustrated that “precious little” reform has been accomplished so far by the U.N. General Assembly, though some diplomats would at least partly blame Bolton’s blunt tactics.
But Bolton did play a key role in major U.S. foreign policy initiatives – getting U.N. Security Council approval of resolutions imposing sanctions on North Korea for conducting a nuclear test, joining with France to promote Lebanon’s democratic government, pushing for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region and putting Myanmar’s repressive military regime on the council’s agenda.
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