By Dave Lindorff

A federal district judge appointed by President George W. Bush to
the bench has done the right thing, ruling definitively this morning
that the President’s claim of absolute immunity for his advisors from
Congressional oversight and subpoena is “entirely unsupported by
existing case law.”

The ruling, by Judge John Bates, is as important as much because of
who issued it as it is for its impact upon Congressional investigations
into presidential wrongdoing.

Certainly the ruling will open the way for Democrats in Congress to
move harder to investigate the abuses of the current administration,
which have been stymied by administration refusal to provide witnesses,
even to come in and plead the Fifth Amendment protection against
self-incrimination.

On March 25, John Bolton was interviewed by BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman (video here). I don't know why this interview didn't get noticed by U.S. bloggers, because Bolton's claims are simply extraordinary. When the history of the Iraq debacle is written, this interview will stand out for its astonishing claims:

John Bolton gave a truly remarkable interview to the BBC.

Q: Is there not an American responsibility, having invaded a country, dismantled all the apparatus of government, to ensure the citizens of that country are not murdered?

A. I think it's the responsibility which we've tried to fulfill to turn it back over to the Iraqis... We made a mistake in hindsight not turning it over to them earlier.

But we don't have a responsibility to make the government of Iraq succeed, that's their responsibility.

Q. Do you have a responsibility to keep the peace or not?

I think that's their responsibility too. I think we're all agreed the sooner the Iraqis can decide whether they're gonna to do that or not, the the better off everyone is.

If that's not clear enough, Bolton also said:

The Nation's Ian Williams counts the ways and assesses the damage done by John Bolton during his tenure at the United Nations...

John Bolton's Greatest Hits by Ian Williams
posted December 4, 2006
In a rare midterm election in which foreign policy was a major issue, it is not too much of a stretch to say that American voters put UN Ambassador John Bolton out of office. Bolton's resignation from his unconfirmed recess appointment at the UN removes the residual fear that the Bush team had something up its sleeve to bypass senatorial resistance to his confirmation. The White House had claimed the support of a bipartisan silent majority for his appointment--even though it was vociferous defections from GOP ranks that helped thwart his confirmation... (more)

Realizing that he would go down in flames if he went before the full U.S. Senate for a vote, United Nations Ambassador John Bolton resigned yesterday and will step down after the recess appointment George W. Bush used to place him at the U.N. expires in early January.

Bush appointed Bolton in August of 2005 while the Congress was on break after it became obvious that even some Republicans were going to vote against the combative Bolton's confirmation to be America's chief diplomat at the U.N.

Here's some Senate reaction to the Bolton resignation:

I had commented on Smirk's felonious abuse of authority in the wake of his arrogant installation of Bolton last week. Now it seems that lay opinion is backed by at least one legal one... Via the American Constitution Society (the progressive counterpoint to the treasonous Federalist Society) blog, acsblog.org, comes a legal opinion posted by Marty Lederman over at Bakinization blog...

John Bolton is Unconstitutional
Well, his so-called 'recess nomination' to be U.N. Ambassador is unconstitutional, at any rate—at least in this writer's humble opinion. And so is the recess appointment on Tuesday of Peter Flory to be Assistant Secretary of Defense... The Bolton appointment, and others like it, was ostensibly made pursuant to the Recess Appointments Clause (Art. II, sec. 2, cl. 3), which provides that the President "shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session"... There are two basic arguments as to why the Clause does not apply here. The first is discussed in great detail in several briefs that my co-counsel and I filed on behalf of Senator Kennedy in cases dealing with last year's "recess appointment" of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge William Pryor...

I witnessed Bush's felonious abuse of power first hand , even though I rarely listen to a garbled word that spews from his blowhole lest I risk suffering permanent brain damage. It was surely supreme hubris on display. In our Mis-Leader's addled mind this arrogant of abuse of authority is a PERMANENT one.

"From the text of Smirk's prepared remarks at Bolton's Appointment - "...I know that Jack and Virginia Bolton would be proud today to see the boy they raised in Baltimore appointed to serve as our permanent representative to the United Nations."

In open contempt of Congress and the world, on Monday Bush appointed John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Pundits wondered why Bush was so fixated on Bolton, since he could have chosen lots of other obnoxious neocons for the job. The answer is simple: Bolton is a man with a mission, and that mission is to engineer a US/UN war against Iran.

On the same day as Bolton was appointed, Iran delivered an "angry letter" to the IAEA "throwing down the gauntlet" with European negotiators over its uranium enrichment program.

Yep, John Bolton perjured himself by submitting a false affidavit to the Senate. State Dept. claims he "DIDN'T REMEMBER" testifying in a joint State Dept/CIA investigation into the false claims and forged documents concerning Iraq attempting to buy Uranium from Niger. You know? The little sixteen words in Dim Son's '03 State of the Dis-Union Address? That ultimately led to PlameGate/ RoveGate? Doesn't matter, old news, our Tin Horn Texas Dictator's gonna install Bolton's lying carcass anyway. At least that's what all the "un-named sources" have been floatin' to the corporate mediawhores... First up, a couple takes on the perjurious statement...

(AP) - State Dept. Now Says Bolton Interviewed
John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador, neglected to tell Congress he had been interviewed in a government investigation into faulty prewar intelligence that Iraq was seeking nuclear materials in Africa... Democratic senators said the admission should forestall Bush from using his authority to give Bolton a temporary appointment to the U.N. post, without Senate confirmation, when the Senate goes on vacation in August. Bolton was interviewed by the State Department inspector general in 2003 as part of a joint investigation with the CIA into prewar Iraqi attempts to buy nuclear materials from Niger...

(AP) John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani ``had to go,'' particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war.