Word had spread several days ago that President Bush planned to sidestep Congress and make a recess appointment to install John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
The problem is not that recess appointments are so rare, as some have charged. In fact, President Clinton made 140 recess appointments over his eight years. President Reagan made 243. Including Bolton, Bush has made 106.
But recess appointments traditionally have been made in emergency situations — such as when President Clinton appointed Mickey Kantor in April 1996 to replace Ron Brown as commerce secretary, after Brown died in a plane crash.
Bush appointed Bolton on Aug. 1 because he knew he didn't have the votes to gain Senate approval. As the Boston Globe wrote in an Aug. 2 editorial: "Only sheer stubbornness kept President Bush from dropping Bolton and choosing a stronger nominee after it became clear how unfit many senators found him." Tellingly, two of the harshest judgments about Bolton were made by Republicans. In May, Senator George Voinovich of Ohio called Bolton ''the poster child for what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be." Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska reacted to President Bush's nomination of Bolton by saying: 'We need alliances. We need friends. To go up there and kick the UN around doesn't get the job done.'"
Which brings us to the Aug. 2 episode of Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, which offered a similar insight, but in a caustically funny way.
Here is an unofficial transcript of the exchange between host Stewart and "Senior World-Government Correspondent" Rob Corddry:
STEWART: Obviously, Rob ... obviously, Rob, Ambassador Bolton is a very controversial pick. How are things going for the new ambassador?
CORDDRY: I think very well, Jon.
STEWART: Now ... I'm sorry, are they, if I hear in the background, are they still booing him?
Article comments
1 - JELIEL
Damn nice article and thanks for the Stewart recap, I missed tonight's episode, I really have to get rid of this social life thingy.
So eh who else can't wait to see the insanity Bolton will bring to the UN? I await impatiently...
2 - Lisa
Great post! Hey, I have a question for you (for anyone, actually). I am woefully ignorant of the whole Bolton affair, having had my nose buried in work for the last several days. Clearly Bush was very sneaky in appointing this man...so, tell me...why do such a thing (besides the simple fact that he can)?
From everything I've read, it seems that Bush pushed this through while everyone's back was turned and it leaves me wondering why Bolton is so important to Bush in the first place that he would risk the backlash. Or is it just another power trip thing?
3 - Nancy
It's a power trip thing. To paraphrase Tolkien, Bush doesn't just want to make people do what he wants, he wants to make them do it against their will. He's the quintessential pathological bully. It isn't fun for him unless he's ramming it down someone's throat.
4 - JELIEL
Nancy, brutal but great analogy IMHO.
5 - Lisa
Ahhhh.....gotcha. That's what I thought. Thanks.