Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:29 am
Nobody is calling John Bolton stupid. A d**khead maybe, but not stupid. It’s just that he’s an arrogant a-hole who thinks everybody else lies as much as he does. You remember Bolton. He served briefly as our Ambassador to the UN. That’s like a Grand Dragon assuming the Presidency of the NAACP. Bolton is on record as basically hating the United Nations with all his heart.
Only a dunderhead like George W. Bush would even remotely consider appointing the likes of Bolton to the UN. Bush handed the Ambassadorship to Bolton by a recess appointmen. That’s because he realized that the DC Senate crowd, mostly familiar with Bolton’s far right background and contentious personality would probably never OK an official Bolton blessing for the post. So, after a mini-series of filibusters, Republican praise and enthusiasm followed by Republican defections including then Senator Chuck Hagel’s initial distaste for Bolton that may have led to his current party woes as a possible Defense Secretary choice.
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Bolton made the rounds of both Bush administrations and before that service, he populated the Reagan White House. Clarence Thomas is a pal, not surprising insofar as Bolton is a American Enterprise Institute and neocon guy. He also helped foist Justice Scalia on an unsuspecting America and lied his way through the insistence that the Iraqi war was a geopolitical imperative, damned brown-skinned immigrants participated in assorted other distasteful and misleading undertakings that makes him pretty much Persona non Grata amongst decent Democrat AND Republican office-holders.
That brings us to Hillary Clinton, a former Yale Law classmate of Bolton and currently the hardworking and most would agree, effective lame duck Secretary of State. Hillary has fallen (quite literally) on hard times of late. Even before recently acquiring a nasty stomach virus, she’s looked just plain exhausted from her endless globe-hopping.
As a result of the virus, she became dehydrated. As a consequence she fainted in her home December 13th. In the fall she struck her head and suffered a concussion. Her doctors recommended bed rest and cancellation of her near-term schedule that included a trip to Morocco (it would have been her 113th overseas trip) and testimony before Congressional committees relentlessly pumping up Obama administration blame for the tragedy at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Here’s where the respective Clinton and Bolton worlds collided. John Bolton took it upon himself, on Fox News of course, to call Hillary a liar. He essentially stated that the fainting and concussion episode was little more than an excuse to get out of testifying about Benghazi. He told the breathless Fox News people that Clinton’s “claim” of hitting her head and sustaining a concussion was what foreign service officers call a diplomatic illness. “This is diplomatic illness to beat the band” he chortled. While he included the mild disclaimer that he hoped it was nothing serious, it was clear that he was telling the viewing audience that Hillary was a cowardly bullshitter.
Fast forward to Sunday, December 30, 2012. Secretary of State Clinton is in New York Presbyterian Hospital with a blood clot, the direct consequence of the concussion. It might be nothing; it might be something. As of this submission, there’s no word on the clots location. Blood clots in the leg are rarely considered serious, though they can be.They’re generally treated with a months-long regimen of a blood thinner. On the other hand a blood clot in the lung (pulmonary embolism) or the brain, can be a very serious matter indeed. Such lung and brain clots can be fatal. Years ago, I remember a popular and fairly young broadcaster who died from a blood clot in the brain. Strokes are a common aftermath. Doctors are going to keep Madame Secretary in the hospital at least 48 hours and check for other symptoms that may show up. Even non-fatal concussions are a veritable cacophony of nasty outcomes including headaches, loss of balance, ongoing nausea, loss of hearing and ugh, blood coming out of the ears.
The moral of this story is that just because you’ve spent the better part of your adult life molding your every word, true or otherwise, to fit some kind of radical agenda, other people might actually be honest when they say they can’t attend a politicized inquisition.
One positive to come out of this whole sad and scary event – all you Senators who wanted to keep Bolton far away from the relative civility of the United Nations did the world a great favor.
Get well, Hillary!
Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.
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