No Democrat likes John Bolton. The guy is an everywhere-hawk whose answer to issues of bombing, civilian deaths, and torture are more, so? and sure. That he has evidence relevant to the impeachment of Donald Trump does not rescind his lifelong achievement award for being a warmongering jackass.
When The New York Times reports that Bolton’s world has “turned upside down” on a wave of Democratic support, it’s being about as accurate in its analysis as Trump’s defense team is. Yeah, Republicans have discovered a serious hate for a man they’ve been standing up as the foreign policy expert for two decades. That doesn’t make him a friend to Democrats. He’s not even “the enemy of my enemy,” because on 99.95% of all topics, Bolton hangs out somewhere in the shadows to the far right of even Trump. Democrats don’t want Bolton; they just want the truth.
If the wholesale abandonment of everything even resembling principle in order to embrace Donald Trump had not already made it clear that Republicans would turn on John Bolton … well, they’re doing it. The same characters who pushed Bolton for the U.N. and even touted him as a possible presidential contender are lining up to say that he’s an idiot who never should have been allowed near a whiteboard. Because that’s what they do.
Bolton wasn’t forced on Trump as some kind of consolation prize for the sad armchair warriors of the world. He sprang back into the White House from the launching pad of Fox News, where his familiar mustache waggled regularly from the Fox & Friends couch or from Hannity’s split screen. For two decades, Bolton has been the go-to guy for pounding Democrats in the one area where, incredibly enough, polls show the Republican Party has had a regular advantage over Democrats: national security. If it moved, Bolton was ready to bomb it. Also if it didn’t move.
This isn’t a new thing for Bolton. In his twenties, Bolton was a Vietnam War supporter—a position he proudly upheld from the safe ranks of a stateside National Guard assignment. He was a minor, but enthusiastic, player in Iran-Contra. He was a key figure behind the “Axis of Evil” idea that made half the planet legitimate targets for U.S. weapons, and didn’t just support bombing Iraq over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, but also championed the idea of smashing up nations because they had the potential to develop WMDs. Bolton generated friction in the George W. Bush administration because he came down to the right of Dick Cheney and was accused of using his U.N. role to actively sabotage peace negotiations. That Iran has been the target of Bolton’s unbroken desire for let’s-see-it-burn makes it just one of many.
For extra irony, Bolton was also the chief author of the Reagan administration’s broad defense of executive privilege in covering up the deals made in securing the role of United States chief justice for William Rehnquist. Even during the impeachment proceedings, Bolton has made it clear that he has nothing but disdain for Congress, for the Democratic Party, for House leadership, and for the public.
There is not one #$@$ing reason for any Democrat to like John Bolton. And none do.
It’s just that Bolton is a fact witness in an impeachment case. He has already said that he has direct evidence of Donald Trump’s motivation in withholding military assistance to Ukraine. He may have equally vital evidence regarding Trump’s actions in other matters in which he has placed personal gain above national security. He has made it clear that he will provide this evidence if asked.
Democrats don’t have to like John Bolton. They just have to like having the facts.
