The State Department versus John Bolton

Here's the one sentence summary of a Los Angeles Times article that looks at John Bolton's relationships within the State Department:

"The State Department in a very general sense is manned by Democrats who are hostile to President Bush's agenda, period."

Read the whole thing.


The New York Times also has a balanced look at Bolton. There seems to be a pretty good reason why Bolton wasn't respected by the old money ivy league types at the Department of State, he's a hard worker:

Raised in a working-class row house neighborhood in southwest Baltimore called Yale Heights - a far cry from the university where he would earn undergraduate and law degrees - Mr. Bolton won a scholarship to McDonogh, then an all-male military school.

That modest background is a key to his personality, some associates say. "He didn't come from money," said Mr. Boyd, his former subordinate. "Sometimes when you push the rock up the hill, you're hungrier. You have more of a drive to succeed."

Most of the entrenched elites wouldn't have Bolton's work ethic, they were born into success, he had to achieve it.