What part of no....

Speaking of John Bolton....

Bush Stands By Keeping Bolton as U.N. Ambassador Despite Opposition

President Bush will not relent in his defense of John R. Bolton, his nominee for U.N. ambassador, despite unwavering opposition from Democrats who view Bolton as too combative for international diplomacy, aides said yesterday.

Other than literally breaking his kneecaps, I'm not sure what the White House can threaten that hasn't already happened to Linc Chafee, which means Bolton never even gets out of committee. So his nomination is stone cold dead. Seems to me that the WH strategy is taking shape: just as the 2000 and 2004 elections were taken as mandates for stuff they had nothing to do with, the 2006 election will mean precisely what Karl Roves choses it to mean, and their tactics will change not one iota. Reality remains unwelcome -- the enemy, as I wrote a while back, rather than the playing field.

I suspect a surefire indicator of creeping old age is that everything reminds you of a story. When I read this story I remembered an exchange with a friend in law school. He was a Dartmouth grad. I told him I had heard a story that Dartmouth frat boys would get drunk, put on football helmets, and run headfirst into the wall... repeatedly. He told me those rumors were false--they did NOT, he insisted, wear helmets.

Bolton and Bush are both Yalies, but you get the idea.