To no one's surprise, Bolton

President Bush bypassed the Senate and appointed John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday over the protests of Senate Democrats who complained he was abusive and would hurt U.S. credibility.

"This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about U.N. reform. So today I've used my constitutional authority to appoint John Bolton as America's ambassador to the United Nations," Bush said during a White House Roosevelt Room ceremony.

From the very start, the point of naming Bolton was to express the Administration's utter contempt for the institution. Ambassador to the UN is as significant a title to Bush as Ambassador to Liechtenstein, except that Dubya feels no need to publicly defy or denigrate Liechtenstein. That is why the objections of Democrats and the handwringing of the few Republicans willing to ask questions were always so irrelevant.

Sending him this way, devoid of even the imprimatur of the hip-pocket Senate, makes that message all the more blatant. The fact that Bush has thereby mooned another institution with the same stroke is pure gravy, a rare two-birds-with-one-stone shot.