He was abusive toward underlings and happily exploited his terrorizing style by relishing such nicknames as "The Shredder" and "Rambo in pinstripes."
Is this John Bolton, President Bush's embattled nominee to be United Nations ambassador, whose obnoxious and threatening ways with Washington subordinates who disagree with him are jeopardizing his confirmation?
Close, but no.
"Rambo in pinstripes" and "The Shredder" were appellations for Albert Dunlap, hired in 1996 as CEO of the troubled Sunbeam Corp. to slash costs, who fired 6,000 of 12,000 employees (prompting another nickname, "Chainsaw Al") and improve profits, but canned two years later for rigging the books to conceal major losses. He later paid a $500,000 fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for his fraud.
But, lo! "Rambo in Pinstripes" Dunlap seems to be reappearing in the likeness of the man President Bush considers the very best man for our UN posting and who, the president insists, "will get the job done" of reforming the United Nations to U.S. standards.
That's what directors thought "Chainsaw Al" would do for Sunbeam, "get the job done." But Dunlap spent so much time reveling in his crude reputation he not only didn't get the job done but broke laws along the way.
So, if Bolton makes it through increasingly hostile questions asked about his bully-boy behavior in the White House, what could the world expect on the international stage of this petulant would-be envoy whose trail of brutish behavior is legion?
For starters, he won't have a White House smokescreen to excuse his tasteless, infantile manners. At the United Nations, hundreds of diplomats without any obligations to George Bush and whom Bolton couldn't fire would be inclined to repeat tales of Bolton's tantrums—that he's right, they're wrong.
And media covering the United Nations would relentlessly stalk Bolton in hopes of an outbreak of brash behavior as a breather from tedious, droning U.N. debates.
The Bush presidency has an addiction for people whose most honored skills are reminiscent of the fabled bull in the china shop and reflect the public-be-damned style of Vice President Dick Cheney, whose use of an expletive in rebuking senior Sen. Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor revealed a contempt for refinement, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose I-know-best strategy left troops in Iraq under equipped for the insurgency that erupted.
John Bolton is a natural addition to the Bush A-team of tough-talk macho males who have utterly no shame when their frail egos and self-righteous convictions lead them to blunder.
Pat Murphy
