In reading the Times' take on Paul Wolfowitz's World Bank appointment a few interesting facts came through. First of all, Paul Wolfowitz is a Democrat. Little as some Democrats from other factions may like it, he's one of theirs as much as the Republican moderates remain Republicans to the occasional teeth gnashing session among conservatives. So where's the credit for Bush nominating a Democrat to head the World Bank? It must be hanging around with the credit Ronald Reagan got for Jeanne Kirkpatrick's nomination to the UN (another Democrat too many Democrats are interested in disowning). I don't expect it to be showing up any time soon.
Another thing that twigged my radar is that John Bolton is only an ambassador by convenience. In reality, he's the "US Permanent Representative". Ambassadors are what we send to sovereign entities, Permanent Representatives apparently go to international organizations of convenience. This is a distinction that really ought to be drawn a bit better because there are political implications to that particular linguistic shorthand. The transnational progressives would like the UN to morph into a world government with sovereignty of its own, military force to go with it, and the power to tax and judge.
Posted by TMLutas at March 19, 2005 08:07 AM