Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid:

August 1, 2005 I am disappointed in the President's decision to bypass the Senate and use a recess appointment to make John Bolton the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Bolton is fundamentally unsuited for the job, and his record reveals a truly disturbing intolerance of dissent. Mr. Bolton did not win the support of a majority of members of the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate refused to make a final decision on this nomination pending review of documents that the Administration declined to provide in blatant disregard for the Senate's constitutional rights and responsibilities. But despite all of the warning signs and all of the red flags, the President has taken this extraordinary step to send a polarizing figure with tattered credibility to represent us at the United Nations. At a time when we need to be doing our very best to mend frayed relationships, encourage real burden-sharing, and nurture a rock-solid international coalition to fight terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the American people deserve better than John Bolton.

We are not filibustering. This is not about whether we will vote on Mr. Bolton’s nomination. The Senator from Connecticut and I and others have said, we are ready to vote on Mr. Bolton’s nomination, if you give us information that we have requested and are entitled to in assessing whether Mr. Bolton should go to the U.N. representing the United States of America.

And a list of heroes wouldn't be complete without a list of those who have lost something: * President Bush, who expended far too much of his precious second-term political capital on what was originally intended to be a cheap throwaway appointment to please a rabid segment of his base. * John Bolton, who will not be able to accomplish what he wanted at the UN. * Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who must now live with the consequences of having Bolton on her team. Now the question is whether she will honor her promise to fire Bolton if he goes off the reservation. * Senator Lincoln Chafee, who has become a model of craven indecisiveness and inaction in the face of integrity. As one Washington Post report put it, when Sen. Voinovich stood up, Sen. Chaffee looked like he was going to cry. * Senator Richard Lugar, who seemed to forget his position and authority as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and allowed the White House to strong-arm him into supporting the Bolton nomination in return for... well, to be frank, apparently nothing at all. * The clearance process within the State Department. * Any junior Foreign Service officer who has the temerity to challenge or question Amb. Bolton over the next fifteen months.

By the time Bolton gets done the U.S. will be paying the entire U.N. budget while being reduced to a conditional maybe even a non voting roll in the SC.