By Brendan O’Reilly

Donald Rumsfeld forgot to close the door behind him when he left the Bush Administration.

Now the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is following him out. Bolton announced Monday he would not seek confirmation by the senate after his temporary appointment as ambassador expires at the end of the congressional session.

Democrats had successfully blocked a confirmation vote on Bolton, with the help of a couple Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) who did not feel comfortable approving his nomination.

After Bolton made statements such as, “There is no such thing as the United Nations,” and “If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference,” it should have been no surprise that some senators did not find him to be the best man to represent the U.S. at the U.N.

Bush made a recess appointment of Bolton, the undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security at the time. Recess appointments do not require confirmation, but have time limits.

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s Political Action Committee, VOLPAC, organized a campaign to have voters call senators and request they vote to confirm Bolton. The day Bolton’s resignation was announced, Frist wrote on his VOLPAC blog, the Democrats were playing politics with his nomination.” Though, if he were a better majority leader he would have forced Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) and Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) to get in line with the party and approve the nomination in the SFRC.

Voinovich has since changed his mind on Bolton, pleased with the ambassador’s performance in the position. But at the time, the senator said Bolton would lack credibility at the U.N., and requested the president nominate a better candidate.

Bolton is the fifth ambassador to the U.N. under this administration, putting Bush ahead of Bill Clinton and Lyndon B. Johnson’s tie of four different U.N. ambassadors during the same presidency. Bush resubmitted the nomination of Bolton on Nov. 9, even though it was clear by then than the Democrats would have control of the Senate when the confirmation came to a vote.

The replacement of Bolton will likely be the first big issue that the White House and the Democratically controlled Senate of the 110th Congress battle over.

With the Democrats controlling the SFRC starting in January, it will be nigh impossible for Bush to see his first choice reach the senate floor. If his past nominations to high profile positions (i.e. Samuel Alito, John Roberts) are any indicator, the Dems on the SFRC will not be happy with his nomination. To avoid a drawn out confirmation process that is doomed to failure anyway Bush will need to put forth a nominee that the Democrats find acceptable, disregarding what his party wants. If he continues into the nest Congressional session to act as if he has a rubber stamp Congress, he will find himself sorely disappointed. Hopefully, the result will be the best person for the job replacing Bolton, and not a partisan hack.

In February Bolton was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his investigations into Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It is in the best interest of America, and the world for that matter, that Bolton’s replacement is a hardliner on nuclear proliferation as well.

If the new ambassador fails to convey to the U.N. the seriousness of the threat a nuclear Iran and North Korea poses to global security, Democrats will be wishing Bolton still had the position.