After weeks of listening to searing testimony on John Bolton, a bitterly divided Senate foreign relations committee has allowed his nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations to go to a vote on the Senate floor. It now looks as though the man who is arguably the Bush administration's most abrasive unilateralist will be the US voice in the world's paramount multilateral forum.

Yet the hearings have undeniably taken a heavy toll on Mr Bolton's reputation, both in and outside the US. He is damaged goods.