CNN reports that President Bush will use a recess appointment to put John Bolton in as U.N. Ambassador.
Source: Bush to appoint Bolton to U.N. (CNN)
President Bush will use a recess appointment to install John Bolton temporarily as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a senior administration official said Monday. Such a move would thwart Senate Democrats who have blocked Bolton’s nomination in a dispute over documents amid accusations that Bolton doesn’t have the temperament for the nation’s top U.N. post.
Under the Constitution, a president has the power to make appointments without Senate confirmation when Congress goes into recess. Lawmakers began their current break on Friday. A recess appointment would last until the end of the current term of Congress, which would put Bolton at the United Nations until December 2006 or as late as January 2007.
This strikes me as a big mistake.
For one thing, U.N. Ambassador is hardly of sufficient importance to justify thumbing Senate Democrats in the eye this way. For another, John Bolton is hardly Robert Bork. Indeed, Bolton may be a case that epitimizes why the filibuster is sometimes a good thing.
