I'm not sure if he used political capital or just lost some, but Bush certainly made no friends today when he appointed John Bolton to UN Ambassador without the advice and consent of the Senate. He has the right to do so on a temporary basis and Bolton will serve until January 2007 when a new Senate will come to session after the 2006 elections. This seems like a dumb rule, it would make more sense for the position to be filled until the Senate resumes session (in a month) and can deliberate, perhaps with him serving until he gets an up or down vote.
For the party so upset that Democrats might fillibuster judical nominations because it had never been done before, they had no problems using a recess appointment for an (UN) ambassador something that has never been done before. The Democrats blocked the nomination while the white house refused to turn over information about Bolton. We'll have to see how Bolton does. Given how he got his appointment his fellow ambassadors could view him as strongly representing the president or as not really representing the US (since Congress has to ratify any treaties).
Bolton's history of being a non-politic hardliner probably won't help him, and neither will his role in the Iraq invasion or the investigation into WMD. And now it seems there's some connection to the Plame investigation.
No comments:
Post a Comment