WASHINGTON -His Senate approval to be U.N. ambassador still in question, John R. Bolton told skeptical Democrats yesterday that the world body had gone off track at times but that he was committed to its mission.
Democrats at Bolton's Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing recited his past undiplomatic remarks about the United Nations and wondered aloud why he would even want the job. They also challenged him over alleged bullying of government intelligence officials who disagreed with him on issues including Cuba's weapons capabilities.
If confirmed
I pledge to fulfill the president's vision of working in close partnership with the United Nations Bolton said at the start of a day of tense, partisan debate over his temperament and record.
Bolton did not disavow statements going back more than a decade, including a speech in which he said there is no such thing as the United Nations only a group of nations that the United States can sometimes sway to act in its own interest.
The United States is committed to the success of the United Nations
and we view the U.N. as an important component of our diplomacy
Bolton said yesterday.
That is a firmer statement of support for the world body than conservatives in and out of the Bush administration have sometimes offered, and some Democrats suggested yesterday that Bolton hadn't really been converted.
Bolton retains a go-it-alone attitude about U.S. foreign policy that is out of step with Bush's second-term pledge of international cooperation, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
My overall assessment is that you have nothing but disdain for the United Nations
she said.
You can dance around it
you can run away from it
you can put perfume on it
but the bottom line is the bottom line
Boxer said. It's hard for me to know why you'd want to work at an institution that you said didn't even exist.
The committee is expected to vote Thursday on whether to promote Bolton from his current job as the State Department's arms control chief to become the U.S. ambassador at the United Nations.
Bolton said he would not aim to promote only American interests at the world body. He also said the U.N. General Assembly needs to focus more on human rights violators and international terrorism.
Sadly
there have been times when the General Assembly has gone off track
