Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has always been a Company Man, one to follow orders no matter how egregiously out of line or dangerous those orders may be. Sure, he squeaked now and again, as when he refused at first to read the fiction-based WMD report to the U.N. that was given him by the neocons in the Pentagon. He squeaked…but he read it in the end.

Now, however, Powell appears to be trying to derail the Bolton nomination. The New York Times is reporting that:

Bush issued a strong new defense today of John R. Bolton, his nominee as ambassador to the United Nations, even as associates of Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state, said that Mr. Powell had expressed reservations about Mr. Bolton in conversations with at least two wavering Republican senators.

The associates said that in private telephone conversations Mr. Powell had made clear his concerns with Mr. Bolton on several fronts, including his harsh treatment of subordinates. The associates said that Mr. Powell had also praised Mr. Bolton’s performance on some matters during his tenure as undersecretary of state, but they also said that Mr. Powell had stopped well short of the endorsements offered by President Bush and by Mr. Powell’s own successor as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.

The accounts of Mr. Powell’s private message about Mr. Bolton suggested a new gulf between the former secretary of state and the president, who spoke out forcefully today in defense of Mr. Bolton. In a speech here, Mr. Bush portrayed Democratic opposition to Mr. Bolton as being politically driven, and urged the Senate “to put politics aside and confirm John Bolton to the United Nations.”

It will be worth watching where this aspect of the argument winds up.