Huh

Via Laura Rozen, the debut column from Eli Lake, one of the smarter neoconservatives writers out there. It's a bit...odd and, in fact, seems to be deliberately missing the point. What I think's interesting, though, is the framing of the Bolton issue is primarily a question of the Undersecretary versus a nefarious cabal of TPM-reading, Kerry-backing bloggers. The real issue, as Eli knows perfectly well, is the internal dispute between the Bolton-DOD axis of Iran hawks and the administration's Iran doves. It's not dissimilar from the internal disagreements about Iraq back in the day, but the hawks' hands are significantly weaker than they used to be and, indeed, they don't seem at this point to be carrying the day.

Bolton's reputation is only relevant if Bush gets re-elected. It's simply inconceivable that Kerry is going to win the election by having his surrogates run down the reputation of an obscure official who probably has 0.01 percent name-recognition in Ohio. What's at issue here is Bolton's reputations among Beltway conservatives. Folks deeply engaged with national security issues will have already made up their minds on this score, but it remains an open question where the broader rightwing infrastructure will line up in case of a second Bush administration.