Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Reagan UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick were not the only significant figures this week to come to the defense of John Bolton, whose nomination as UN ambassador has been held up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the fickleness of Sen. George Voinovich (R.-Ohio) Thirty-two former government officials who served with Bolton at the Justice Department-including former Attorneys General Ed Meese and Dick Thornburgh and Deputy Attorneys General Frank Keating and William Weld-signed a letter to Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.) expressing their confidence in Bolton. The signers accused Bolton's adversaries of "character assassination," adding: "Not one of us has ever witnessed conduct on his part that resembles that which has been alleged." In a separate letter, Bolton also won the backing of 43 former co-workers at the American Enterprise Institute
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