Hail to the Chief!

President Bush has made a recess appointment of John Bolton to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and I couldn't be happier. The President gets the man he wants at the United Nations to try to restore some sort of credibility there, (a monumental task in my opinion) and he sidesteps the Senate to do it.

Actually, sidestep is probably the wrong word to describe what President Bush did. He acted on authority specifically granted to the President in the U.S. Constitution:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have 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. (Emphasis added)

When you get right down to it, President Bush would be well within his executive powers to recess appoint John Roberts to the Supreme Court if he chose to do so. So much for all of the documentation the Democrats are demanding on Roberts for the confirmation process! Roberts could actually serve on the Supreme Court until the end of the next Congressional session without answering a single question. Now there's a thought!

Back to Bolton, I think he is the right man for the job and regardless of what the Democrats would have us believe, he would most likely have been confirmed if he had not been filibustered. President Bush stood by Bolton and did the right thing. America doesn't need another Kofi Annan sympathizer at the U.N., they need someone who will hold them accountable for their actions and who speaks for the President. I believe Bolton will do just that.

Although the Democrats may cry foul, they don't have a leg to stand on. They may claim "abuse of power" and other such nonsense, but all that has occurred is the legitimate exercise thereof. Power is won at the ballot box in what we in America like to call elections and it isn't being abused, it is being utilized. As much as the Democrats may hate it, the President is in charge, not them.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette and Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam

Tags:John Bolton,Politics,United Nations