[promoted by BooMan]
Facing extreme pressure within the senate and the possibility that the appointment of John Bolton as new US ambassador to the UN will fail, the White House has announced that they are not ruling out a recess appointment. This is the way the Bush administration operates: if they can’t get what they want from a branch of the democratically elected government, they force their will by using strong arm tactics.
Condaleezza Rice and WH sock puppet, Scott McClellan are both parroting the “up or down vote” line through the press, while senate Republicans have scheduled a procedural vote for today, Monday, June 20, 2005.
(Note: I will be posting a live diary to follow that vote later on today when I find out the time of the vote. Update: C-SPAN has announced that the vote to limit debate will occur at 6 pm ET.)
A recess appointment would ensure that Bolton would serve as UN ambassador until January, 2007. This, following news last week that the administration’s idea of UN reform is to blackmail the UN by threatening to withhold dues if their demands are not met. Who better to be the public face of this bullying than John Bolton, whose history of unrestrained aggressiveness is very well documented?
As Joe Biden said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday: “If we give up on this, we might as well forget about oversight”.
From Harry Reid:
Republican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press last week they were unlikely to prevail, barring a last-minute compromise.
And, if Bush can’t get what he wants, we all know that he has no qualms about grabbing it any way possible. Democracy? What’s that?
As Chrid Dodd points out:
Many of us would say that his reputation has already crippled him, but if he’s sent to the UN as the teacher’s pet, ignoring the will of the senate, that will send a clear message to other UN members: Bush will ignore any and all criticism from the people of America to further his agenda at the UN.
Democrats are still holding out for information about what Bolton did with the names revealed to him via the NSA intercepts and, if it is not forthcoming, Bolton will go to the UN under a huge cloud of suspicion. How can UN member countries be expected to trust a man or a government that refuses to be trustworthy and open? That is the function of a diplomat: to secure fruitful and trusting relationships in order to further cooperation. Bolton is not a diplomat and he is not the man for that delicate job. He will fail and the people of the US will pay for it. Those who oppose his nomination know that. Those who would be subject to his behaviour at the UN in the future if he is appointed during the recess will soon discover it.