Right Wing Attacks Khalilzad For Not Defending Bolton’s Honor: ‘A Lack Of Testicular Fortitude’
Right Wing Attacks Khalilzad For Not Defending Bolton’s Honor: ‘A Lack Of Testicular Fortitude’
Last Saturday, Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, participated in a panel discussion on Iranian foreign policy with two high-ranking Iranian officials at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The New York Times reports that the White House and Condoleezza Rice were “angered” by Khalilzad’s move because he did not receive explicit authorization. (Watch video of the event here.)
The moderator of the forum joked that Khalilzad has a “really formidable advantage of having a name that is not John Bolton.” Because Khalilzad let that comment stand without repudiating it, right-wing bloggers have erupted in full rage that Khalilzad did not jump to defend Bolton’s honor (as they surely would have). Thus, Khalilzad’s behavior was “disgusting,” “an insult to the United States” and showed “a lack of testicular fortitude”:
Powerline: “The moderator begins the panel with an insult to former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. Rice is apparently angry that Khalilzad participated in the panel without administration authorization. I am angry that Khalilzad participated after the insult to his predecessor in office. Disgusting.”
Captain’s Quarters: “The moderator noted in his effusive introduction of Khalilzad that among his outstanding qualities was “the further, really formidable advantage of having a name that is not John Bolton.” Regardless of whether Khalilzad had prior authorization, allowing the insult to Bolton to stand unchallenged represents an insult to the United States and a lack of testicular fortitude on the part of his replacement.”
During the panel discussion, Khalilzad “did not veer from the U.S. position” and “stuck to the administration playbook” during the entire event.
So, despite the fact that Khalilzad adhered to the Bush administration line on Iran during the discussion, the right-wing bloggers found it reprehensible that an American official would have the temerity to sit in the same room with an Iranian official and let a mild dig at John Bolton go undefended.
UPDATE: Newshoggers writes, “Poor Zalmay. He’s been a loyal neocon for years and they lauded him for his work in Afghanistan and Iraq when he was up for the UN post. … But let a slur on the Almighty Moustache slide and he’s neocon toast.”
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Bolton has honor? Who knew??
January 30th, 2008 at 12:51 pmhell, these same a$$holes are the ones that are foaming at the mouth for war but won’t dare enlist.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pmTruth hurts, don’t it. Those in attendance understood the joke. And one of the best things going for the US at the moment is that John Bolton is no longer Ambassador to the UN. I can only hope that the first words out of the next Commander in Chief’s mouth are something akin to our long national nightmare is ending.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pmJohn Bolton is mad and John Bolton’s mustache is really mad. You don’t want to see John Bolton’s mustache when it’s angry!
January 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pmI just love it when the neo-cons “eat their own”!
Infighting on the side of the ultra-radical right-whiners is nothing but fantastic news for average Americans!
January 30th, 2008 at 12:54 pmWell, surely this is justification for bombing Iran back into the Stone Age, right? Right? Common, back me up here, guys… right?
January 30th, 2008 at 12:54 pmI’m sure a cell is being prepared at GITMO.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pmOf course, that photo begs the question, what was Zalmay talking about when he made that gesture?
January 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pmWho cares what the lame duck thinks (and the righties think too)?
They are on their way out of power to many long years of minority status (where they belong!)
For once, the UN Ambassador from the US is doing what the vast majority of Americans want him to do.
“To jaw jaw is better than to war war.”
January 30th, 2008 at 12:56 pmit was an insult to john bolton only, and deserved…
well played, mr. khaliazad.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:58 pmHow could the Right support him?
Khalilizad is a Muslim. And Muslim = Terra-ist.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:59 pmI’m angry Rice hasnt apolgized for her predecessors lies in the UN security council insulting the entire world. Disgusting.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pmJohn Bolton went to the UN with the explicit purpose of offending everyone there. He succeded in a grand way. His distain for the UN is known by all. Fortunatly, most there understand that these people are on their way out……thank god and not a moment too soon.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:02 pm**yawn**
These people attacked a child over S-CHIP, but jump to defend the honor Bolton’s mustache.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pmHe rightfully ignored it knowing full well what a POS Walrus-boy is.
And really should anyone with any morals really care what the FK Rice says.
Buck Fush
January 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pmYes, I can understand why the wingnuts are disappointed in Khalilzad’s performance.
After all, what good is a diplomat who won’t immediately get in the face of someone on the other side of a table who makes a joke? I mean, really — who needs a diplomat who will try to, y’know, work with others?
January 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pmPam Oshry of Atlas Shruggs for UN Ambassador!
-GSD
January 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pmEdwards to speak about dropping out of race in a moment.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:05 pmTwo questions –
1) What “honor” does Bolton have that’s worth defending?
2) Why does the right wing tend to make everything have to do with genitalia?
January 30th, 2008 at 1:05 pmHey, Mr. Bolton, you’ve got a little Khalilzad crumb on your moustache.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:05 pmBut Mr. Bolton is only a private citizen now, isn’t? And really never was confirmed as UN embassador. What’s the problem then? They were jocking about a private citizen who has never been an official embassador.
Too bad, neoconnies, all the world knew that.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pmWhy do eunuch’s that volunteer to have them removed talk the most about testicles?
January 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pmI can hardly wait for the reaction from these knee-jerk, ditto-head neo-cons when President Obama is introduced before his first speech to the U.N. and it is noted that among his positive qualities is “the further, really formidable advantage of having a name that is not George Bu$h.â€
January 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pmSize does matter.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pmThey should have known this about the guy. When he was in Afghanistan, Khalilzad was always showing up at events acting like the Americans–and, in many cases, he personally–was responsible for whatever good news was being covered. In many cases, we’d had nothing to do with it. By putting an American face on event, Khalilzad was actually working against our best interests, which were to show a strong, functioning government working for its people.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pmComment by tom — January 30, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
“Clinton did it”.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pmBolton is mad alright. Not the angry kind of mad either. The psycho babble kind. As in loony toon.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm23 they are going to be really offended at a lot of things like that….I am going to enjoy it as much as they enjoy the sound of human beings screaming…
January 30th, 2008 at 1:13 pmComment by Zooey — January 30, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
Hi, Zooey :)
January 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pmJohn Bolton needs to go back to doing the only thing he’s any good at . . . being everybody’s favorite gimp at Plato’s Retreat.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:17 pmI guess there won’t be any more mustache rides for Khalilzad. Jeez, the guy actually does something “diplomatic” while carrying the Administration’s tainted water and they dog-pile all over him. And Condi’s pissed that he didn’t storm out of the conference. Classic!
January 30th, 2008 at 1:19 pm“John R. Bolton” and “honor” in the same sentence. Bizarre.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pmWhy do we assume the moderator was joking?
January 30th, 2008 at 1:25 pmComment by Evil Spaniard — January 30, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
Hello, Senor Evil. :)
January 30th, 2008 at 1:25 pmI find it utterly amazing that the foaming-at-the-mouth warmongers who talk about the lack of testicular fortitude’ of others suddenly lose their own(if they ever had any to begin with) when it comes to joining the army themselves to put their bodies where their mouths are.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:32 pmWe assume the moderator was at least half-joking because he laughed when he said it. One of the Righties has a full clip up. The moderator laughs as does the audience. Seems to me, that’s the truly telling part of the whole affair — a room full of foreigners laughing at the person who was the de facto mouthpiece for Cheney’s foreign policy. Heckuva job, Johnny.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:34 pmHow dare ZalBama KhalilBinLaden insult Dearest John Bolton, The bravest most strongest scambassador ever!
-GSD
January 30th, 2008 at 1:34 pmcomment by missmolly @ 1:05 pm
I guess their preoccupation about size is due to their own deficiencies.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pmrepresents an insult to the United States and a lack of testicular fortitude on the part of his replacement.â€
So that’s the organ you use when you defend someone?
I thought it was the brain.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:39 pmJohn Bolton was nothing more than just another one of Bush’s Rejected Recess Appointments. And he was rejected by the Senate because he was a terrible diplomat! And everybody on the planet knows that John Bolton was one of the most undiplomatic people in the world! (Yes, at times, even the “World’s Worst Person in the World!”)
I wouldn’t have defended John Bolton if they insinuated he was a child molester! I would have simply said, “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.” That’s how the neo-cons defend their inhuman views.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:41 pmAnd what, precisely was he supposed to do in response to the ‘insult’? Challenge the moderator to a duel to the death? Rip off his shirt and attack the moderator with a steel chair? Its amazing to hear the locic and rationale defying rhetoric coming from the neocons. If only they took threats to the Constitution as seriously as they do to one of their real icons.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:43 pmImpeach Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution.
Doing something without the blessings of the Dictator is problematic, eh? They’d better get used to it.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:44 pmNow John Bolton and Captain Kangaroo in the same sentence might make some sense.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:44 pmTempest in a Teapot. Someone made a joke, big whup.
What I don’t get is why TP cares what is said on “right wing blogs”
January 30th, 2008 at 1:45 pmFurther proof that the Powerline guys are Bush bootlicking idiots. I recall that Powerline was one of the right wing blogs that a White House memo identified as publishing whatever they were told to publish by the White House.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:48 pmWhat I don’t get is why anybody cares what Keltoi says on TP.
Fixed it for ya’
January 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pmI can hardly wait for the reaction from these knee-jerk, ditto-head neo-cons when President Obama is introduced …
Comment by tom — January 30, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
yea… i wonder if my ditto-head-in-law will replace his
“I Stand Behind President GWB (or some such)” bumper sticker with
“I Stand Behind President BARACK OBAMA”
ah hahahaha! … aaahhhh… … no i don’t…
can’t wait to find the appropriate thread to copy/paste his latest screed…
January 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pmyer gonna luv it…
Tempest in a Teapot. Someone made a joke, big whup.
What I don’t get is why TP cares what is said on “right wing blogsâ€
Comment by Keltoi — January 30, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
Typical Hypocritical WINGNUT. What YOU DON’T GET is WHY YOU CARE what’s posted on a PROGRESSIVE BLOG enough to BE HERE ANNOYING EVERYONE while WHINING why you don’t understand why people care what’s on a RIGHT WING BLOG. KillMoron.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:50 pmWhat the right-wing posts on their blogs matters because too many people believe what they read there to be based on facts, which is highly unlikely. The Right Wing tends to treat its ideology as fact (which it isn’t), and is even willing to send good men and women to their deaths based on those falsehoods. We like to know what our moronic fellow citizens (the ones who believe the Right Wing blogs) are being told so we can better prepare them for the truth. And John Bolton was one of the worst people to ever be chosen as an unconfirmed UN Ambassador.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:55 pmTempest in a Teapot. Someone made a joke, big whup.
What I don’t get is why TP cares what is said on “right wing blogsâ€
Comment by Keltoi — January 30, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
Oh, the sheer irony, is just unbelievable.
Your comment just begs the question: “why do you care what TP puts on their post?”
January 30th, 2008 at 2:00 pmYour comment just begs the question: “why do you care what TP puts on their post?â€
Comment by dim wit — January 30, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Um…I like reading the threads and posting to them?
January 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pmcomment by Veritas @ 1:44 pm
Don’t go insulting Captain Kangaroo. He was a bona fide war hero. Iwo Jima.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:05 pmUm…I like reading the threads and posting to them?
Comment by Keltoi — January 30, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
Well there you go. TP likes reading right wing blogs and putting snipets on their blog so that all of us can read and comment upon them.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:06 pmJohn Bolton is to diplomacy what Michael Bolton was to music.
And just for the record, Bolton was never the Ambassador to the U.N.
He was an interim appointment, done under cover of congressional absence on a dark rainy night in the Cheney Horror House.
And he was NEVER confirmed…
January 30th, 2008 at 2:13 pmWell there you go. TP likes reading right wing blogs and putting snipets on their blog so that all of us can read and comment upon them.
Comment by dim wit — January 30, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
K.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pmComment by Keltoi — January 30, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
dw
January 30th, 2008 at 2:29 pmRice will not stand up for women gang raped by KBR or Valarie Plame a highly valuable secret agents outed by Bush/Cheney, but she will stand up for a scum-bag like Bolton.
Maybe she would feel differently if KBR got their hands on her.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:32 pmI can see the feigned outrage of right wingnuttia is alive and well. They have to justify their existence by some new outrage everyday.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pmSo, despite the fact that Khalilzad adhered to the Bush administration line on Iran during the discussion, the right-wing bloggers found it reprehensible that an American official would have the temerity to sit in the same room with an Iranian official and let a mild dig at John Bolton go undefended.
If you are not a good lock-stepping brownshirt to the neoCONs, you are against them. It comes from the “your’re either with us of against us” mentality. This is part of the reason why the the Republiscum party is in such disarray. Too bad they can’t see it.f
January 30th, 2008 at 2:38 pmUm…I like reading the threads and posting to them?
Comment by Keltoi
Loon troll Keltoi thinks that the left shouldn’t care what the right wingers post on their blogs in yet he spends an inordinate amount of time here on TP, the left wing blog that he loves to hate. Loon Keltoi doesn’t explain why he is keeping an eye on a left wing blog but TP shouldn’t be keeping an eye on right wing logs.
Irony is certainly lost on this troll tool fool.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pmBolton is a COXUCKER punk TRAITOR to the USA.
Just like MURDERER Bush.
I hope a soldier wounded permanently in Iraq because of the LIES of Bolton and Bush
does Bolton in…
January 30th, 2008 at 3:54 pmTough sh**. Bolton is an international joke and a buffoon.
His presence in that position was one big FU to the UN and by proxy the world at large.
Typical of these cat turds, they cry and whine and play victim when someone calls them on their own arrogance.
COWBOY UP, you quivering-lipped sissies.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:54 pm