Condoleezza Rice, who will be confirmed as secretary of state at congressional hearings next week, rebuffed pressure from conservative hardliners, believed to include Dick Cheney, the vice-president, to promote Mr Bolton as her deputy.
Instead, he will leave his post as under-secretary of state for arms control and international security after Dr Rice chose other candidates for her new team.
Mr Bolton, a tough-minded, Yale-educated lawyer, was not available for comment. He is expected to return to the private sector or academic world, although there is speculation that he might join Mr Cheney's staff.
[...]
Mr Bolton believed that Teheran should be isolated by United Nations sanctions and, if it would not back down, confronted with the threat of military action. He was also uncompromising about North Korea, describing life in the Stalinist dictatorship as a "hellish nightmare". Pyongyang responded by calling him "human scum".
It was apparently Mr Bolton's abrasive approach as much as his unflinching politics that prompted Dr Rice to choose Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, as her deputy instead.
[...]
Her choice reflects the fact that Dr Rice wields far greater influence in the administration than her predecessor, Colin Powell.
[...]
By contrast, President Bush has unstinting trust in the loyalty and political instincts of Dr Rice, for four years his National Security Advisor.
[...]
"There is a change in emphasis and approach, but don't think this means that the administration is going to go soft on Iran and North Korea," said a senior Republican political operative at the State Department. "It means that Condi wants her own people in place and the President trusts her go get the job done."
You just can't have too many friends around you in Washington these days.
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