John Bolton: Even The Economist Thinks He Is An Asshole

I argued in my book that, if the congressional record and media reports were correct, that it was fair to label John Bolton (former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations) as a certified asshole.  I was also careful to make clear that this opinion was based on reports about his personal behavior, not on his political views (indeed, I label several democrats as assholes, including Steve Jobs).

Bolton has been called an asshole by the liberal media, including the Village Voice and at least one blog. But now even the fairly conservative Economist magazine seems to agree in a review of Bolton’s book that they titled "Looking Back in Anger." They didn’t use the A-word, but if you look at this review of his book, Surrender is Not An Option, that seems to be their message.

Here is the Economist’s opening paragraph of their review:

"SURELY even John Bolton cannot be quite as curmudgeonly as this? In a
memoir devoted mainly to his nearly six years of government service
under President George Bush, America’s former ambassador to the United
Nations has a bad word for almost everyone who dared stand up to him.
This is odd. One of his attractions has always been his willingness to
argue it out with his opponents: when other neocons went missing in
action, he defended the cause. Yet in this book, this undeniably
talented man of principle often comes across as a domineering bully."

Alas, the (then Republican controlled) congress did try to apply the no asshole rule, and seemed to be on the verge of rejecting him after all the nasty stories about his personal behavior came out in the hearing.  But the Bush administration used a loophole in the rules to appoint him to the position during a recess.  Looking back, no matter if you agree or disagree with his politics, I can’t see how appointing someone to a diplomatic post who has a known history of demeaning and disrespecting others can possibly be a wise move.  And the evidence was clear at the time, as Carl Ford, former head of the State Department’s intelligence bureau, told congress that Bolton  was  "a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" whose efforts to intimidate underlings raised "real questions about
his suitability for high office."

To put it in another context, would you hire someone for a job that required tact and gaining the cooperation of others who was known as a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy?"