John Bolton: "Intellectual Collapse"

Rough time to be a neocon these days, what with the United States doing a nuclear deal with North Korea that will see that country off the U.S. terrorism list, a senior U.S. official about to meet with the dreaded Iranians--and even Rice herself preparing to meet with her North Korean counterpart in Asia next week.

Ah, for the days of the Axis of Evil.

We were scanning a story Wednesday by our colleague from Reuters, Sue Pleming, on the U.S. decision to have Undersecretary of State William Burns attend nuclear talks with Iran. She quoted former Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a leading hawk, as saying the move represented "the total intellectual collapse of the Bush administration."

"Intellectual collapse." The phrase seemed vaguely ...... familiar.

With the wonders of the Internet and Nexis/Lexis, we found out why. Just three weeks ago, the White House had handed another baddie--the North Koreans--a major concession. Bolton also thought that was the administration's "total intellectual collapse." Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Bolton opined that at least there wasn't much time left in the Bush administration for it to make further concessions--or, as other folks might say, "engage in diplomacy."

The Iran move shows that Bolton spoke too soon. And Bush still has 185 days left in office.

Love him or hate him, at least Bolton is consistent. ... http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/nationalsecurity/20...