All hail to the Chief, who’s giving quite a serious speech about it all. On my teevee. Now Bolton’s speaking … “to my wife Gretchen and to my daughter [C.J.?], in absentia…” WTF?
Update [2005-8-1 10:45:50 by susanhu]: Russ Feingold issues an immediate release on Bolton’s appointment:
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
On the President’s Recess Appointment of John Bolton
August 1, 2005
I am disappointed in the President’s decision to bypass the Senate and use a recess appointment to make John Bolton the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Bolton is fundamentally unsuited for the job, and his record reveals a truly disturbing intolerance of dissent. Mr. Bolton did not win the support of a majority of members of the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate refused to make a final decision on this nomination pending review of documents that the Administration declined to provide in blatant disregard for the Senate’s constitutional rights and responsibilities. But despite all of the warning signs and all of the red flags, the President has taken this extraordinary step to send a polarizing figure with tattered credibility to represent us at the United Nations. At a time when we need to be doing our very best to mend frayed relationships, encourage real burden-sharing, and nurture a rock-solid international coalition to fight terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the American people deserve better than John Bolton.
In other news: The President addressed the surviving attendees at the National Boy Scout Jamboree.
Five scout leaders and one scout died this week, and scores were treated for heat exhaustion while waiting for the president to show up.
