August 4, 2005

EDITORIAL

A troubling appointment

President Bush took the easy way out this week when he sidestepped the U.S. Senate and named John R. Bolton as the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations. Perhaps this was an appropriate way for the administration, which likes to bully its way around Washington and the world, to get its ambassador, whom many say is a bully, to the U.N.

Recess appoints are not rare. Several media outlets reported that President Bush has now made 106 appointments while Congress was on break, while President Clinton made 140 recess appointments. But given the controversy that the Bolton nomination generated, appointing him while the Senate was on break is a poor way for any diplomat, especially one as important as the United States’ ambassador to the U.N., to get a job. A better nominee would have earned the legitimacy that comes from passing muster with the Senate, thus giving him the full weight that comes from representing the United States.

President Bush faced the dilemma of what to do with Mr. Bolton because his nomination had been going nowhere. The nomination initially stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then when it finally reached the full Senate, was held up as Democrats attempted to gain information on Mr. Bolton’s work with the State Department. Mr. Bolton also was accused of bullying subordinates and twisting intelligence for political means. He was a poor nominee because of his openly hostile views toward the very institution where he will now work.

One senator helping to expose Mr. Bolton’s flaws was Ohio’s George Voinovich, who was the only Republican to stand up to the troublesome nominee. Back in the spring when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was debating the Bolton nomination, Senator Voinovich called Mr. Bolton “the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.” On Monday, when the president announced that he was bypassing the Senate and giving Mr. Bolton the U.N. post, Senator Voinovich said that he would provide Mr. Bolton with a book on effective management practices. While this is a generous offer from Senator Voinovich, the United Nations seems like a poor place to go for that type of on-the-job training.

Throughout this year, a debate has been brewing about the president’s right to nominate his candidates for federal jobs, whether they are judges, ambassadors or Supreme Court nominees. The president certainly can nominate whomever he likes, but his selections must be fully qualified and must pass rigorous scrutiny. The Senate should not be a rubber stamp for all presidential nominations.

In the end, the president got his man to the U.N. However, Mr. Bush’s approach to the Bolton nomination exemplifies what’s wrong with this administration. Instead of finding an ambassador with impeccable credentials who could garner widespread support across political differences, the inflexible Bush administration did an end-run around the political process nominees should go through. The president’s appointment of Mr. Bolton is just one more example of how little he respects diplomacy and compromise.

—Robert Mihalek