Why are Democrats -- in the words of Sen. Christopher Dodd -- promising a "bruising" battle over the confirmation of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations?

Bolton is serving under a recess appointment because Democrats twice filibustered a vote on his confirmation last year, preventing a full Senate vote. They were upset that Bolton had made disparaging remarks about the United Nations and that he was tough on subordinates. They were afraid he would alienate our allies.

Now they are sure he has done just that. Dodd said, "I'm sorry the administration wants to go forward with this. The problems still persist. Many ambassadors at the U.N. feel he hasn't done a good job there. He has polarized the situation."

There you have your answer. The liberals' opposition to Bolton lies in their attitude toward the United Nations, which they regard as a largely positive institution rightly frustrated with the arrogance of President Bush and the United States.

The New York Times made this very clear in a recent story on Bolton. The Times wrote, "The Bush administration is not popular in the United Nations, where it is often perceived as disdainful of diplomacy, and its policies as heedless of the effects on others and single-minded in the willful assertion of American interests. By extension, then, many diplomats say they see Mr. Bolton as a stand-in for the arrogance of the administration itself."

Does the Times bother to refute this charge that Bolton and the administration are arrogant and unjustly alienate our "traditional allies"? Hardly. It's been one of the main critics of President Bush's alleged "unilateralism" in foreign policy.

Liberals don't like it one bit that Bolton sees his role as vigorously representing the national interests of the United States, just as every other U.N. ambassador advocates the positions of his own country. They don't support Bolton's efforts to reform the United Nations, a corrupt organization that has consistently mistreated the United States and made a mockery of human rights -- a cause it purports to champion. They cringe when Bolton exposes U.N. hypocrisy, such as when he pointedly challenged Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, on his threat to charge Israeli leaders with war crimes. Continued...