John John

Stewart had Bolton on the Daily Show last night, and wow. That was nine minutes of worthwhile television. The two appeared diametrically opposed on the subjects they hit, and their repartee was informative and entertaining. Stewart jabbed with whether Bolton's "fox in the hen house" appointment as UN ambassador was emblematic of Bush hubris and failure to understand and utilize compromise as a resource with Congress and other countries. Bolton countered with the need for an elected administration to remain true to its stated policies, even if that means putting people in places where they will seek to effect fundamental change, even creative destruction (OK, I am tossing that last part to Bolton).

Though he didn't say all that much, Bolton had the most interesting lines. Following up on the "true to stated policies" point, he asked, if administrations have to compromise as Stewart suggested, what is the point of having elections? And was Stewart challenging what Bolton called "democratic theory"? I will sound off on elections in another post, but for now, let's just remind Bolton that the President is not the only elected official in the US Federal Government. And Congress was designed to be a check and balance on the executive branch, if I remember my civics correctly.

But, surprisingly, Bolton unknowingly answered his own question a bit later. He stated that elected officials should be judged by their effectiveness. In other words, the point of having elections may be to have the people choose which policies their government should effectuate. Not to have them choose which policies their government will shout about while utterly failing to advance. Recognizing the thin ice onto which he had skated, and after the audience chuckled, Bolton changed his wording ("effectiveness" became "actions"), and returned to the voter loyalty point etc.

Smartly, Stewart retorted "if you you'll give us the first part of that, we'll let you have the rest of it". Bolton was as deer in the headlights as Bush would have been. Then the show ended. Too bad.