Reforming the United Nations is one thing. Nominating as U.S. ambassador there someone who openly derides the institution and multilateralism in general is something else. John R. Bolton, the nominee, once said that, if the U.N. Secretariat building in New York “lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference” and that “there is no such thing as the United Nations.”

He led an administration’s unsuccessful campaign to deny a third term to Mohamed ElBaradai, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who had been proven right in finding that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. At a critical point in nuclear negotiations with North Korea, he denounced its leader, Kim Jong Il, as “a tyrannical dictator” and North Korea as a “hellish nightmare.” He showed European allies that he had no use for their diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to end its nuclear programs.

So why would President Bush, after a fence-mending tour of Europe, professions of faith in internationalism and reliance on the United Nations to head up tsunami relief, name such a person as the chief U.S. delegate to the agency?

Payback, for one thing. The chairman of the American Conservative Union, David Keene, told The New York Times that “He’s our man in the State Department,” adding that he sometimes joked that Mr. Bolton was in charge of the department’s “America desk.”

For another, it provided a high-level job for Mr. Bolton, who had served Bush administration vigorously, as well as helping behind the scenes in the 2000 Florida recount battle, according to The Washington Post. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who praised the nomination, had indicated that she would replace Mr. Bolton as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. And she had passed him over as deputy secretary of state in favor of Robert Joseph of her National Security Council staff, despite strong backing for Mr. Bolton by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Senate confirmation is uncertain. The publication Roll Call reports the top three Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were tepid toward the choice of Mr. Bolton. Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., “ap-peared conflicted about Bush choosing a man regarded as a brusque U.N. foe.” He had urged Ms. Rice earlier to select nominees who would help build a consensus foreign policy. Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., “declined to endorse Bolton’s nomination, saying they were troubled by statements the nominee has made that appear hostile to or disrespectful of the world body.”

President Bush, confident after his re-election, seems to relish a fight. It looks as if he may get one.