THE FILE ON BOLTON

Never mind that John R. Bolton insults his subordinates; so did Lyndon Johnson and a lot of other public servants going all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt and John Adams. Never mind that he belittles and denigrates the United Nations, where he seeks to take a seat. Those attributes might even make Mr. Bolton an interesting and useful addition to an organization that can be stuffy and indecisive.

No, the case that members of the Senate, including Maine’s two moderate Republicans, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, should be considering is far more serious. And more is yet to come in the days before the vote, expected as soon as June 7.

The most damning evidence thus far is testimony by former colleagues that he pressured intelligence officials to change their official appraisals to conform to his views and tried to have some of them transferred when they disagreed with him.

Many of those who have worked with him in the State Department have come forward to warn that he would be a terrible American representative at the U.N. Although five former secretaries of state signed a letter backing the confirmation, Colin Powell, for whom Mr. Bolton worked, did not join that list. Mr. Powell is known to have advised several senators that Mr. Bolton is not the right person for the job.

Democrats stalled a scheduled vote last week on the grounds that the White House had refused repeated requests for files bearing on Mr. Bolton’s efforts to punish officials who disagreed with his views on perceived threats by Cuba and Syria. Those files have been available to Mr. Bolton and the White House. They should be made available to members of the Senate and to the general public.

Ever since Sen. George R. Voinovich, R-Ohio, broke with his party’s Senate and White House leaders and forced the Foreign Relations Committee to send the Bolton confirmation to the Senate floor without approval, other Republicans have made it clear that they doubt that Mr. Bolton is right for the job. Party loyalty seems to be persuading most of them to go along with confirmation despite whatever misgivings they have.

This case presents each Republican senator with a test on how he or she weighs judgment on the facts vs. party loyalty. The Bush administration has been presenting Republican senators with many such tests, such as the proposal for drilling for oil in the Alaskan preserve, pressuring them for support of the Medicare prescription drug bill without disclosing its cost, sending up the controversial nominations of especially ultraconservative judges, proposing to privatize Social Security and trying to change the Senate rules through the “nuclear option.”

On the Bolton nomination, senators have a few more days to weigh his qualifications, join in pressing the White House to release the files, and, if the White House relents, study those memos and e-mails and determine what they may add to Mr. Bolton’s case.

Then will come the time for a considered, independent judgment in the true spirit of the constitutional advice and consent.