You can hate him for one, but still listen to his words of how bad it is in the White House.
And of all the people who could be waved off as RINO or not really a “conservative”, Bolton is not one of them. So if he is saying things are fucked, things are fucked. That doesn’t mean he is a truth seeker, per se, and definitely not a world builder. Unless you would consider a Death Star world building. He would totally make one of those.
Ok, so if this an example of the dribs and drabs that are in his book then there really doesn’t seem to be much there there at all. Many outlets have advance copies and you know damn well if there was something actually explosive inside that they would have released it right away. Esp the NYTimes.
And he can go fuck himself, considering he avoided testifying before the House so he could profit off the administration with a tell all book.
The impeachment charges should have included hiring Sarah Huckabee Sanders to do his lying.
they can have closed down sessions for national security reasons, so it can be, yes. They do that all the time.
Best guess? It’s not all in the book. If he was compelled to testify, he could talk about just about anything with impunity. Stuff he can only allude to now, he could put out there for him to later elaborate on in a book.
I think he outsmarted himself. He was probably hoping to be the guy who’s testimony brought down Trump, have his ass totally protected, and make even more money with the book. He wanted it all.
George Conway (he of the Lincoln Project and the extremely questionable taste in wives) theorizes that he wanted to be forced to testify, and he expected Republican senators to stand by their oath of office, which Conway describes as a “fateful misjudgment[:] [Bolton] overestimated the character, honor and patriotism of Senate Republicans.”
If I take a crate of mongooses and opossum and dump it into a pit of vipers, I don’t care if the weasels win or if the snakes do. I just want the entire pit to be behind bars and as many of them terminated as possible.
Edit: that’s not actually true. mongooses can be kind of cool. Opossum on the other hand…friggin dangerous rabid evil looking beasts.
A box of bread crumbs.
Yeah well, asking Russia to do the same didn’t get him booted so, why should a Chinese version?
It’s probably the first thing he asks of world leaders he meets.
I’m not buying that. It’s more likely he was hoping for generating attention for his book. He doesn’t give two shits about this country. The people who DID testify, like Fiona Hill, actually do.
As for Conway… I’m tepid on the lincoln project too. The GOP is trying to play both sides here, so that however this ends up, they can find a new place to land safely.
NONE of this people give a shit about what’s right and protecting American democratic practices… they care about their own bottom line and being in power. That’s it.
I don’t think that’s a narrative anyone can extract from the current situation. He’s publishing a book (to benefit himself) rather than going public with what he knew when it mattered.
I thought it was very funny last night when Colbert held up his review copy of the book and explained why it was embargoed until next week … there are paper review copies everywhere, that cat is not going back in the bag
Both. Bolton’s a horrible warmonger who should be kept the hell away from any position of power and authority, but unlike Trump, he’s got actual beliefs and principles that he sticks to. (Mostly they’re terrible ones, but still – he’s a bad person, but not a hollow fake of a human being like Trump.)
Here come the denials:
Oh, lol, just saw the NY Times review of the book:
The book is bloated with self-importance, even though what it mostly recounts is Bolton not being able to accomplish very much. It toggles between two discordant registers: exceedingly tedious and slightly unhinged.
Between this and other snippets of reviews I’ve seen, it sounds like it’s full of damning information (some of which is damning to Bolton), but told so poorly the full horror of it doesn’t come across.
I’d have started with “should have allowed witnesses”.
Dear John Bolton, fuck you with your “they should have impeached on this”. The House subpoenaed for their impeachment inquiry you fought it until it was withdrawn. So, you can take all your righteous indignation and fucking choke on it. You don’t get to be the good guy here – you’re just as complicit as the rest of them, and worse yet you had a chance to do something about it and you actively and knowingly sabotaged that opportunity. So once again: fuck you, sir.
It’s a cool fantasy to think of the House impeachment investigators throwing people in jail and toughing every little subversion out for the months it would take to go to the Supreme Court (where a victory was not guaranteed). As fun as that would have been, it was quite simply never going to happen.
If anything this all showed how weak and toothless Congressional subpoenas and oversight powers really are.
2017 me: I’m shocked, shocked at these disturbing revelations!
2020 me: Yeah yeah, anything else?
