Friends, as you know, I have a piece on John Bolton in the current issue of NR. And you know this because you’re subscribers, right? Ahem. Anyway . . . I have this piece on Bolton, describing and analyzing his tenure as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Before writing, I was interested to come upon a piece about Bolton published in NR back when Bush was president — I mean, the first Bush. The year was 1990, and Bolton was an assistant secretary of state. The secretary of state, of course, was James A. Baker III.
And the title of NR’s piece was — get this — “Jim Baker’s Right-Hand Man.” Baker was no favorite of conservatives, then as now. And Bolton was very much a conservative. The author of this piece was William McGurn, who is currently chief presidential speechwriter. He asked, “How does a man who wears Adam Smith ties survive in a Bush administration?” The answer was: Just fine, thank you very much. Bolton was doing a cracking job.
And McGurn imparted a lovely bit of color: Bolton had in his office a gift from his colleagues in the Reagan administration. (He had worked in the U.S. Agency for International Development.) And what was the gift? A dummy grenade, inscribed, “John R. Bolton, Truest Reaganaut.”
I have no burning point to make — just thought you’d enjoy that.
‐See you soon, dear hearts.