Bush Recess-Appoints Bolton: Hilarity Ensues
Using a little-utilized presidential power, President Bush appointed John Bolton as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
Article II, Section 2, U.S. Constitution: "The President shall have th Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."
In other words, Bolton will remain the U.N. Ambassador until January of 2007, at which time he would need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Was this a wise move on Bush's part, or will the expenditure of political capital prove foolish?
Personally, I think this was a move of Rovian genious. If Bolton serves as Ambassador for a year and a half without incident, then the Deomcrats will lose every justification they have for filibustering his nomination. Sure, they'll still point out that he is mean to his subordinates, but if it is established fact that this doesn't prevent him from being a good Ambassador, what can the Democrats do except allow him to come up for a vote on the Senate floor?
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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
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