John Bolton has been doing an excellent job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for the past year-plus. Unfortunately, he has not been confirmed by the Senate and his recess appointment will expire at the end of the current Congress.

I'm of the opinion that there are only two reasons to reject a president's choice to fill an executive branch slot: If the nominee has a serious character flaw or if the nominee admits during Senate testimony that he will not follow the law. The latter is why the Senate refused to confirm Bill Lann Lee to be a deputy attorney general for civil rights -- he supported quotas which were expressly forbidden by federal law.

Right now Bolton's fate lies in the hands of R.I. RINO Lincoln Chafee. A Washington Post story on Bolton's future includes this from "Chafee's office":

Chafee's office said he has not decided how to vote. But an adviser outlined the difficult choice: "Politically it's a no-win for the senator. He votes against it, and he hurts the Republicans who just helped him in a primary in a very, very tight race. . . . And he votes for it, he hurts himself with the Democrats that he needs in November."

What the h-e-double hockeysticks happened to just doing what is right? Chafee has admitted that his number one concern is not the American people, it's his own political future.

And politicians wonder why the American people are so cynical about their elected representatives.

On a related note: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has put up a Blogging for Bolton webpage up -- but there's a problem. It lists only Democrat senators phone numbers. Chafee's number is left out (it's (202) 224-2921)