Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is one of a string of former White House aides who hope to harvest millions of dollars by dishing out the dirt – or anything that could be construed as dirt – on the boss.  There is nothing new about it.  Virtually every President has had a staffer or two offering to “spill the beans” for a big paycheck.

In fact, their insider stories have virtually no value if they do not come up with salacious or sensationalistic revelations.  Publishers dangle more and more money to elicit greater and greater amounts of dirt.  This provides a huge incentive for the authors to put things out of context, exaggerate, and outright lie in order to promote “bombshell revelations.”

If you are unable to recall any of the tell-all books about previous presidents, you can understand why the Bolton book’s shelf life is likely to be rather short.  They get a lot of attention for a few days – and then … puff.

Bolton sings from the #NeverTrump Resistance Movement song sheet when he definitively declares that Trump is unfit to be President.  He further implies that Trump was soliciting re-election help from China’s Xi Jinping.  Bolton tries to support that claim with snippets of conversations.  But even the conversations he describes seem to be open to more than one interpretation.

Bolton’s perception of Trump’s fitness may come from deep policy disagreements.  Bolton has enough ego to believe that disagreeing with him is sufficient to establish unfitness.  Bolton has long considered himself the smartest person in the room.

The main area of deep disagreement is over the use of the American military.  Bolton is a super super-hawk.  He preferred attacking North Korea rather than opening talks.  Bolton was reported to be furious when Trump would not attack Iran after they downed one of our drones.  Bolton lobbied for military intervention in Venezuela.   All that runs contrary to Trump’s policy of military disengagement.

Bolton may have been correct in some instances.  Many Trump voters – me included – do believe that Trump should have used more military force in certain situations – especially with Iran and Syria.  But that does not mean that Bolton can impose his own policies over those of the President any more than I can.  His job was to carry out the policies of the administration as developed by the President.  Bolton’s role was as an advisor – not a decision-maker.

What makes the book particularly troubling is the position Bolton held in the White House.  He was privy to our nation’s most closely guarded secrets.  His conversations and characterizations of the President in private should have remained private – whether they were technically classified or not.  It is hard to imagine that any conversation between a President and his top national security advisor would not be classified, confidential or privileged.

Bolton’s sense of intellectual superiority may be one of the reasons that none of Bolton’s past six government appointments lasted more than four years – with an average length of service of less than two years.

Bolton also has a reputation as a leaker.  He likes to make his case in the court-of-public-opinion.  The book is mostly a massive leak of internal information – a betrayal of trust.  And it is not a new characteristic with Bolton.  In his previous positions, an unusually large volume of insider information was leaked to the press – and always to reflect well on Bolton.  He seems to see leaks as a weapon.

If the things in Bolton’s book are true, then he should have most certainly testified at the impeachment hearings, where his accusations would be made under oath and subjected to cross-examination.  Democrats have a justifiable complaint in that regard.  But there is a reason why he dodged that opportunity.  Was it to preserve the sensationalism for book sales?  Was Bolton afraid to make his dramatic accusations under oath?  At that point, we run out of rational speculations.

With Bolton attempting to circumvent Trump on matters of policy – including his less than private feud with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – Trump decided he did not need an advisor who gave him unwanted advice.  So, he canned Bolton.

While Democrats and the left-wing media will spin the more provocative statements – true or not –the book seems little more than a carefully crafted retaliation by a disgruntled employee against the boss who fired him.  Outside of the money and the momentary admiration from those who have hitherto hated him, Bolton appears to gain nothing positive from the publication.  Maybe money is enough.

So, there ‘tis.

By Larry Horist