BUSH INSTALLS BOLTON WITHOUT SENATE APPROVAL

Using a maneuver generally reserved for judges and lower-level officials, President Bush installed John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations on August 1. Mr. Bolton goes to New York as the first-ever UN Ambassador without Senate confirmation.

Citizens for Global Solutions launched the Stop Bolton site just days after Mr. Bolton's nomination and has consistently maintained that his confirmation would be disastrous for U.S. interests. Because of Mr. Bolton's core beliefs about the United Nations, his skewing of intelligence to fit his personal agenda, and his loose-cannon style of diplomacy, senators and foreign policy practitioners of all political stripes have doubted his credibility and capacity to get the job done.

Some reactions to Mr. Bolton's appointment:

"At a time when we need to reassert our diplomatic power in the world, President Bush has decided to send a seriously flawed and weakened candidate to the United Nations...Bolton arrives at the United Nations with a cloud hanging over his head." — Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-NV.

"I am truly concerned that a recess appointment will only add to John Bolton's baggage and his lack of credibility with the United Nations. That said, the president has made this decision, and I will do everything in my power to support Mr. Bolton as he takes this new position." — Sen. George Voinovich, R-OH.

"John Bolton has placed his faith in a unilateral, go-it-alone foreign policy that has stretched our military thin, and I believe his inability to be an effective and constructive ambassador could produce dire consequences for American foreign policy." —  Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA.

"John Bolton is the wrong person for the job and the decision to appoint him today will not serve American foreign policy well at all... His history of inflammatory statements about the U.N. will also make it difficult for him to effectively advance U.S. security interests in New York and bring about necessary reforms to that institution." — Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL.

"Everybody up there will know, in a tough job, that he was not confirmed and he has certain limitations … time-wise. So I think it's a bad choice, and I would recommend against it. — Sen. Trent Lott, R-MS.

"He is exactly the wrong person to send to the United Nations at a time when we are trying to rebuild our credibility around the world. ... I now fear that we have lost an important opportunity to help re-establish the United States' global role as a moral and responsible leader." — Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV.

Updated August 4, 2005

+ Learn more about John Bolton on the Stop Bolton campaign site.