They don't like Bolton's unambiguous defense of Israel's actions in response to Hezbollah's unprovoked attacks, in which they killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers and shot missiles indiscriminately into Israeli civilian populations. They resent Bolton's rejection of the U.N.'s moral perversion in giving the terrorists a pass for their atrocities and portraying Israeli acts of self-defense as war crimes.

They shudder at Bolton's moral clarity, such as when he said, "I think it's important that we not fall into the trap of moral equivalency here. What Israel has done in response is act in self-defense. And I don't quite know what the argument about proportionate force means here. Is Israel entitled only to kidnap two Hezbollah operatives and fire a couple of rockets aimlessly into Lebanon?"

Bolton understands the nature of this conflict and its adversaries. Nothing could better characterize the respective warring forces than a recent cartoon depicting an armed Israeli soldier positioned protectively in front of a baby carriage while his terrorist enemy was holding his weapon (SET ITAL) behind (END ITAL) a baby carriage.

As Bolton knows, it's hard to negotiate with savages of that mindset. That's why in an interview with Fox News' Brit Hume, Bolton dismissed Syria's requests for dialogue with the United States. Bolton told Brit, "Syria doesn't need dialogue to know what they need to do. They need to lean on Hezbollah to get them to release the two captured Israeli soldiers and stop the launch of rockets against innocent Israeli civilians." Exactly.

To put it bluntly, Republicans support Bolton's nomination precisely because of his clarity of thought and speech -- and his unapologetic representation of America's interests. Democrats oppose him because they sympathize with the negative view of Bolton held by foreign envoys who have anything but the best interests of the United States in mind.

If it bothers you that we have a staunch defender of America's interests serving as our ambassador to the United Nations and believe, instead, that we should routinely subordinate our interests to other nations openly hostile to us and contemptuous of the very idea of human rights, then you, too, should join the liberal chorus against confirmation of this fine public servant.