“Sane people ask, ‘Why should I be put through that?’ ” he said at an American Spectator breakfast. “That leaves you with people with no career other than politics” in high-level positions.

Bolton still has no love for the United Nations. He remembered that Kofi Annan’s press secretary once referred to the former secretary general as a secular pope. “Well, you know I’m a Lutheran,” Bolton said. “I don’t have a religious pope. I don’t have secular popes, either, and if I did it wouldn’t be the secretary general of the United Nations.”

More Bolton:

» On Europe’s policy toward Iran: “The European Union’s motto should be ‘speak softly and carry a big carrot.’ ”

» On the situation in Iraq: “We’re not good at nation building.”

» On dealing with liberals: “Being at Yale was good training for being in the State Department.”