Bush Names Bolton U.N. Ambassador in Recess Appointment

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said it is important that Bolton, who earned a reputation as having a confrontational and intimidating style, work with his diplomatic counterparts in "a spirit of give-and-take."

"I think it's all right for one ambassador to come and push," Annan said. "But an ambassador always has to remember that there are 190 others who will have to be convinced, or a vast majority of them, for action to take place."

Bolton takes charge of the U.S. mission at a time of deep crisis at the United Nations, which has been beset by investigations into abuses in its oil-for-food program in Iraq and allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in several U.N. missions.

Cheney and his allies are advocating structural changes in how the United Nations responds to international crises. Bolton's first tasks deal with the world body's future: World leaders will meet in two months to plot the organization's mission in the years ahead, with an eye on the next leader of the United Nations. Annan's term will end in December 2006.

Bolton inherits a post whose influence has already been diminished by the president's decision to downgrade it from a Cabinet-rank job. Bolton could face some of the toughest challenges to his authority from within the State Department, where Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed career foreign policy professionals in the top policymaking positions. It was this class of career professionals with whom Bolton, as undersecretary of state, often clashed most acrimoniously during Bush's first term.

"He'll be taking instructions, not making them," said Nancy Soderberg, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for political affairs during the Clinton administration.

Soderberg said the State Department under Rice's leadership has already exhibited a tendency to compromise that was often unseen in the first term.

Still, some U.N. observers say that Bolton has proven a skillful bureaucratic infighter who can advance policies he supports. "He's been very adept within the U.S. government on influencing and directing policy," said William Leurs, president of the nonprofit United Nations Association. "We'll just have to see if all the concerns about him were mislaid."

Those concerns almost derailed Bolton's nomination. Democrats and one Republican, Sen. George V. Voinovich (Ohio), opposed Bolton's confirmation because of concerns raised by some former colleagues, who described him as an abrasive bully who sought to remove people who got in his way. Senate Democrats twice prevented a final, up-or-down vote on Bolton. Republicans said they easily had enough votes to confirm Bolton if Democrats had not used parliamentary tricks to prevent final action.

The fight over Bolton began as a skirmish over his previous derogatory remarks about the United Nations but quickly grew into a larger struggle over the nominee's temperament and eventually over the rights of senators to obtain executive-branch documents pertaining to a nominee's work. In the end, Democrats continued to demand more documentation related to allegations Bolton manipulated intelligence to support his views as the top State Department official for arms control.

As recently as last week, Senate Democrats were busily building the case for Bolton's defeat, including getting the State Department to admit publicly that Bolton misinformed the Senate when he did not reveal he had been interviewed by the agency's inspector general about faulty prewar intelligence.

Bush said Bolton performed admirably in his tenure at the State Department: "Over the past four years as undersecretary of state, he's shown valuable leadership on one of the most urgent challenges of our time: preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction." Now, Bush added, "he will speak for me on critical issues facing the international community."

Lynch reported from the United Nations.