UPDATED
I spent a lovely summer in Liege, Belgium, once. I studied Francophone language and history at the university there. I took a day trip to a small town founded by the Romans several years before the birth of Christ. I ate real Belgian waffles (you cannot begin to imagine how great they are) and fresh cherries right off the tree. I sampled several of the beers, of which they seem to have a different brand for every man, woman and child. My classmates and I went to the coast for an all-day rock festival featuring Iggy Pop, INXS and the Crash Test Dummies. Ahh...
It pains me to think that George W. Bush would inflict a swift-boating Repugnican hack on that beautiful country.
Is it 2009 yet? Can't come too soon.
UPDATE
Via FDL, this might not be a fait accompli, at least not if Sen. Chris Dodd has anything to say about it.
"It is outrageous that the President has sought to stealthily appoint Sam Fox to the position of ambassador to Belgium when the President formally requested that the Fox nomination be withdrawn from the Senate because it was facing certain defeat in the Foreign Relations Committee last week. I seriously question the legality of the President's use of the recess appointment authority in this instance. I intend to seek an opinion on the legality of this appointment from the General Accountability Office and invite other Senators to join with me in that request. This is underhanded and an abuse of Executive authority — sadly this behavior has become the hallmark of this administration."This is how you do it. Hit him everywhere you see a soft spot. Never let up. Never.
1 comments:
(from another report:)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070404/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_outflanking_congress
"Recess appointments are intended to give the president flexibility if Congress is out for a lengthy period of time, such as the four-week adjournment in summer. But Dodd said the law was not intended to circumvent lawmakers' approval."
The very fact that Bush WITHDREW the nomination, then names him a few days later, clearly demonstrates the abuse of executive power -- that the ONLY reason for making use of the recess appointment is to dodge the advice and consent of the senate; in other words, the ONLY thing getting in the way of the president's "flexibility" in appointing an ambassador is the Senate's disapproval of the appointment! Not the fact that the Senate's on a one-week break. Now that's what you call a reductio ad absurdem.
I think mr Bush is heading for a real ass whooping. Not just on this either.
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