Bush makes ANOTHER recess appointment: the Swift Boater!

[DFW]

In a slap in the face to the Senate Democrats, Kerry in particular, as well
as to NATO and Belgium, a country from which I happen to be making this post,
Bush made a recess appointment of Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium. A funder
of the Swift Boaters in 2004 to the tune of $50,000, his nomination was so sure
to get rejected by the Senate that Bush had already decided to withdraw the
nomination.

This is also a slap in the face to American foreign policy. It demonstrates to
the world, our allies in particular, that the foreign policy of the United States
is not being conducted with the consent of the people, or in their interest.
Rather, it is being conducted capriciously and according to the whim of an ever-more
isolated small group of people hunkered down in the White House, hiding from the
public as if they were Attlia's hordes at the gates of Rome. It's as if Bush had
already been impeached and convicted, and was getting in some last digs as a parting
shot at the country that had (s)elected him to do a job, and wanted him gone when he
refused to do it, or at least attempt to do it competently.

Other than the Swift Farters and the immediate family of Sam Fox, I don't know who
Bush thinks he was pleasing with this action. Even the fanatical right-wingers
who thinks he walks on water should, by all logic, be angry with this action,
detrimental as it was to the standing of our country at the seat of the most
important military alliance to which we still belong.

Of course, it must be noted that among fanatical right-wingers who think Bush
walks on water, logic has never had anything resembling top priotrity.........

[Uben]

1. What did you expcect?

The job was bought and paid for.

[LuckyTheDog]

2. Wow

And what makes this all the more amazing is that Belgium does not even exist! http://zapatopi.net/belgium/

:silly:

[EST]

3. The juvenile delinquents who have managed to game the

system and hack into the government simply cannot resist tweaking the noses of their more responsible kin. The rules and customs surrounding recess appointments were never meant to allow such maladroit piddling.
Hopefully, sooner than later, this mess will end and some rules can be instituted to prevent any other miscreants from prostituting the generally open form of government we favor.

[mediaman007]

Stand firm on troop funding!

Bush* will stab the Democrats in the back at the first opportunity. He can't be trusted.

[mediaman007]

4. Stand firm on troop funding!

Bush* will stab the Democrats in the back at the first opportunity. He can't be trusted.

[Ian David]

5. Some people say that Sam Fox got the job the same way Victor Ashe did

<snip>

UPDATE June 5, 2006 The woman in question is Leola McConnell. She is the Liberal Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada in 2006 (see below)

June 4, 2006 -- More on George W. Bush's "Sanctity of Marriage" gay marriage constitutional ban.

George W. Bush's marital problems have just taken another turn for the worse. Apparently, Mr. Bush has not only engaged in an extra-marital affair with a member of the opposite sex who is also a senior member of his Cabinet, but also a member of the same sex. WMR received the following release this morning from Leola McConnell, Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada (who has been endorsed by WMR). McConnell is a one-time professional dominatrix.


"President Bush's speech to the nation Monday. If he doesn't say he's a gay American or at the least a bisexual one then he shouldn't be making one at all. And the notion that it would be in regards to writing bigotry into our nation's Constitution is reprehensible. Too bad it isn't me doing the rebuttal because in 1984, I watched him perform (with the enthusiasm of homosexual male who had done this many times before) a homosexual act on another man, namely Victor Ashe. Victor Ashe is the current Ambassador to the nation of Poland who should also come out like former Governor McGreevey of New Jersey and admit to being a gay American. Other homo-erotic acts were also performed by then private citizen George Bush because I performed one of them on him personally.

I am the woman this website ( http://bushssecretlifein84.tripod.com/) speaks of that has been posted on the net nearly two years now. None of this would be the business of anyone but President Bush's little ruse to save his failed presidency by using DOMA to divide Americans one from the other has to be exposed as the act of a desperate closeted homosexual man. The only crime in being GLBT is in the hiding. The President needs to come clean with the American people about his own past sexual behavior before he tries to besmirch the humanity of people in search of sincerely committing to the same bonds of matrimony he's afforded. He violated his own vows of monogamy having a homosexual affair with a long time family friend of whom his wife had no knowledge. His hypocrisy seems to know no bounds.

I had planned to run for governor of Nevada without going into any of this but his planned nationally televised address to the nation makes it necessary for me to address his attempt at division in as public a way as he picked to try this Bushification of reality regarding same sex marriages.

Sincerely,
Leola McConnell
Liberal Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada"

More:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/341507.shtml

[Ian David]

6. See also: Swift Boat donor named ambassador

Swift Boat donor named ambassador

By Jill Zuckman
Washington Bureau
Published April 5, 2007

WASHINGTON -- First, President Bush nominated Sam Fox, a St. Louis businessman and major Republican fundraiser, to be ambassador to Belgium. Then he withdrew the nomination when he saw it would fail in the Senate. And now he has appointed him while Congress is out of town and can't stop Fox from getting the job.

Fox drew Democrats' ire for his sizable donation to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group created in 2004 that claimed Sen. John Kerry exaggerated his military record in Vietnam. The relentless attacks against Kerry's patriotism and truthfulness are widely considered to have cost the Massachusetts Democrat the presidential election.

Bush's decision to give Fox the ambassadorship, after it became clear the Senate would not confirm him, is bound to inflame already tense relations between the legislative and executive branches.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) called the maneuver "outrageous," "underhanded" and "an abuse of executive authority."

More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704040962apr05,1,7884970.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

[salin]

7. While recess appointments are not unusual... what makes this

more of an issue is how controversial this guy is (granted not as controversial as the Bolton recess nomination) - but the timing. The Senate is getting fed-up with Congress being treated by the Admin as a non-functioning branch of govt. It goes to pattern of behavior. So what does that mean? To my memory I do not recall a Senator immediately calling for an investigation into the legality of such an appointment such as Dodd is doing per the GAO.

[Tyler Durden]

8. Belgium does not have to "credential" Fox.

A foreign power is "presented" with the ambassador's credentials. At this time, they MAY choose (although this hasn't happened in my lifetime if memory serves) to NOT ACCEPT the credentials.

I'm planning on contacting their embassy (email) to urge them not to accept Sam Fox's papers.

[DFW]

9. I'd love to see that, but it ain't gonna happen

Bush has appointed unqualified cronies before as US ambassadors
to major allies, and they have swallowed them. I have worked with
Europe for over thirty years, and have yet to see even the most
outrageous ambassadorial appointment turned down by the host
country. You would have to appoint Kurt Waldheim as Austrian
ambassador to Israel before that would happen. The Belgians
are no idiots. If they need serious business done with the USA,
they will either bypass the ambassador by going through lower
echelon embassy staff, or go through NATO, as it has its HQ here.

The can tolerate it while not appreciating it. It's not like Bush's
standing could go any lower here in NATO land.

[Sparkly]

10. Kerry and Dodd statements

"It's sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate," Kerry said in a statement.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he plans to ask the
Government Accountability Office to issue an opinion on whether the recess appointment is legal.

(snip)

"This is really now taking the recess appointment vehicle and abusing this beyond anyone's imagination," said Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "This is a travesty."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070405/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_outflanking_congress

[DFW]

11. They're both right, and Dodd nailed it

It IS an absolute travesty. This is NOT what the recess appointment
was designed for. It was designed for situations when someone was needed
when Congress wasn't around, NOT for someone who was not wanted when Congress
WAS around.

[enough already]

12. We need congressional hearings on this as well

Supboena everyone.