So Bolton is out. What a nice parting gift Republican Lincoln Chafee gave the White House, after it had gone to the mat for him in the Republican primary.

Democrats are ecstatic over taking Bolton's scalp, especially Senator Christopher Dodd, who has been on a personal jihad against Bolton from the beginning. Joseph Cirincione, from the liberal Center For American Progress, said Bolton's resignation marked "the collapse of the neoconservative policy that has guided this administration since 9/11."

I guess that's one way of looking at it. Another would be to see it from the perspective of Republican Senator George Voinovich, who originally opposed Bolton's nomination in May but came to support him a few months later after watching Bolton work. Voinovich wrote in the Washington Post in July:

I cannot imagine a worse message to send to the terrorists -- and to other nations deciding whether to engage in this effort -- than to drag out a possible renomination process or even replace the person our president has entrusted to lead our nation at the United Nations at a time when we are working on these historic objectives.

That's exactly what the Dems did for months prior to the election, despite the fact that the world didn't end when Bolton went to the UN. To the contrary, he scored a number of successes during his short tenure and did an admirable job of aggressively representing America's interests as well as defending the administration's work at Turtle Bay to conservatives who were generally much more skeptical about (and hostile towards) the UN - a point for which Bolton often gets no credit.

Predictably, the Dems and members of the liberal media are callling for President Bush to chart a more "multilateral" course with Bolton's replacement:

Majority Leader Harry Reid: Hopefully this change marks a shift from the failed go-it-alone strategies that have left America less safe. President Bush should now nominate a UN Ambassador who is ready and willing to work with our allies around the world, and who understands the pressing need to change course in Iraq."

John Kerry: 'With the Middle East on the verge of chaos and the nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea increasing, we need a United Nations ambassador who has the full support of Congress and can help rally the international community to tackle the serious threats we face."'

The NY Times editorial board: The Bush administration doesn't need to insult the world at a time when it is becoming increasingly clear how much help the United States needs to stabilize Afghanistan, extricate itself from Iraq, and curb the nuclear appetites of North Korea and Iran. Mr. Bolton's withdrawal gives the president a chance to improve his relationship with both the U.N. and Congress. There are plenty of experienced, internationalist Republicans who could get near-unanimous support in the Senate and send a signal to the world that Mr. Bush understands that the United States is not the only nation on the planet whose opinion matters.

Think about how fantastic these statements are. The UN is going to help us get out of Iraq? The virulently anti-Semitic member organizations in the UN are going to solve the Middle East crisis? An "internationalist" Republican is going to be more effective than a hard-nosed negotiator like Bolton at getting Russia and China on board with sanctions against Iran?

If you believe any of these things you might as well believe in the the tooth fairy. And here I thought "realism" was the buzzword of the day with the Democrats.

The UN, as an institution, is inherently dysfunctional and has become systemically corrupt. Yet at the same time, the UN still maintains an aura of credibility around the world and, to a lesser degree, in the eyes of the American public. So it's unrealistic, and potentially damaging, for America to talk about withdrawing or defunding the UN. There's been some talk of the United States trying to establish a new organization composed of nations who share the same values (i.e. democracy, human rights, and the rule of law). But even that idea, which seems to a me a good one in theory, is a bit unrealistic at the moment.

As a result, the best we can make of our current situation is to push the UN to reform as much as possible and to work through the current system to aggressively defend our interests and those of our allies - which is exactly what John Bolton had been doing. And he'd been doing it pretty well, too.

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