Bolton: Waiting for the Recess

14 July 2005 |permalink | email article

I raised a question last week about the fate of John Bolton, the outspoken conservative who often criticizes the United Nations and is President Bush’s faltering nominee to be ambassador to the world organization: Is Bolton Toast?

The answer is now in. With Senate Democrats unyielding their long-running dispute over documents relating to Bolton’s tenure at the State Department - and Bush’s refusal dump a loyalist - the former undersecretary of state is ready to settle for a slip in the back door.

The Washington Post quoted an administration source who is familiar with Bolton’s thinking that if the Senate doesn’t confirm him, then “most assuredly [Bush] will make a recess appointment.” The next recess, scheduled to last a month, starts July 30, and the president is constitutionally empowered to fill a vacancy when the Senate is in recess.

Some Republican senators, edgy about a possible bitter nomination fight for a Supreme Court successor to Sandra Day O’Connor, and worried about the status of Karl Rove, Bush’s Machiavelli, have warned that a recess appointment - good only to the end of 2006 - would cripple Bolton’s effectiveness and influence.

The Post reported two months ago, when his nomination was in trouble, Bolton began efforts to double the office space reserved within the State Department for the U.N. ambassador. Previous ambassadors have kept a small staff in Washington in a modest suite.

Such a request, some unidentified colleagues said, was inappropriate since Bolton had not been confirmed. But humility is not a trait of the Bush crowd.

An administration source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, “Bolton isn’t going to sit in New York while policy gets made in Washington.”

The statement speaks volumes about an absentee ambassador-in-awaiting, and White House contempt in bypassing the U.N. in its reckless rush to war in Iraq on information known to be false.

How much more damage can Bolton do?

460