Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and surrogate for presidential hopeful former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) John Bolton harshly criticized the Obama administration’s response to the violence in Benghazi, Libya earlier this month, calling the U.S. response “limp-wristed.”

The Bush appointee was speaking to Fox News on Friday when he used the homophobic insult, which, as Think Progress noted, is “usually used as a slur against or allusion to gay men” and to connote weakness.

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“The US is viewed under Obama as weak, as Sen. McCain said, as declining in influence dramatically in the Middle East, pulling out of Iraq, intending to pull out of Aghanistan,” Bolton alleged, “having a limp wristed reaction to the assassination of four American diplomats.”

Bolton was joining a group of Republican Senators and other officials condemning the Obama administration for its foreign policy in the Middle East.

The former ambassador was appointed to the United Nations by way of a recess appointment in 2005. Because of his noted bellicosity on matters regarding Islamic nations, Democrats and moderate Republicans opposed his appointment to the ambassadorship.

Former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi called Bolton’s nomination “a mistake” that would harm the reputation of the U.S. in the world.

Bolton is a confrere of anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Gellar who recently posited that Cuba’s Castro regime is working hand-in-hand with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to plan a terrorist attack against the U.S. using biological weapons.

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He has been acting as a surrogate for the Romney campaign, hosting events and fundraisers since Bolton endorsed Romney for president in January of 2012.

Watch the clip, embedded via YouTube, below:

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[image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr]