"The new ambassador arrived at Turtle Bay only five hours after the president dispatched him, and he was greeted with carefully calibrated warmth. No American ambassador arrives at any appointment anywhere with a cloud hanging over his head; the representative of the president of the United States makes his own weather. The notion -- peddled by the Democrats, who knew they could delay the appointment only for a little while -- that Mr. Bolton arrives in New York with 'built-in handicaps' and 'starts out as a lame duck' without 'the stature that comes with Senate approval,' is merely media huffing and partisan puffing. In an editorial, the Associated Press called the appointment 'brazen' and an 'in-your-face gesture to Congress and the global community,' but the only puzzlement at the UN is over why the president allowed a tiny minority of senators, resigned to a self-assigned and probably semi-permanent role as knockers and grumblers, to frustrate policy aims with procedural delaying tactics. The president, presenting his new ambassador, said Mr. Bolton would 'speak for me on critical issues facing the international community,' which is of course what all ambassadors do." --Wesley Pruden