Washington – President Bush bypassed the Senate and installed John Bolton as his ambassador to the United Nations on Monday over strong Democratic objections that he was abusing power and undermining the credibility of the United States.
In a brief announcement in the White House, Bush said he had been forced to act because the United States had gone for more than six months without an ambassador to the United Nations.
It was the first time since the United Nations’ founding in 1945 that the United States has made that appointment using a backdoor procedure called a recess appointment, which permits the president to fill vacant positions when the Senate is in recess, as it is for the month of August.
The appointment ended a five-month standoff between the White House and Senate Democrats, who held up Bolton’s confirmation over accusations that he had manipulated intelligence to conform to his hawkish ideology and had bullied subordinates.
Opposition by Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, was the catalyst for the Senate’s refusal to confirm Bolton. A protégé of Vice President Dick Cheney, Bolton is known as being combative and outspoken.
Senior administration officials said there had been some misgivings in their ranks about installing Bolton by recess appointment because he would be seen as weakened by months of battering in Congress and would have less than a year and a half to serve in the job.
But other officials said Bush was determined to stand up to Congress and to make a show of force on Bolton, a favorite of conservatives.
The president’s reference to “complete confidence” was a signal, the officials said, that Bolton had the full support of the White House.
Bolton was sworn into office shortly after the announcement, and by Monday afternoon he had arrived in New York, where he was booed on the sidewalk outside the U.S. mission, a few blocks from the U.N. complex.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed Bolton but told reporters that the new ambassador should consult with others as the administration continued to press for reforms at the United Nations.
“I think it is all right for one ambassador to come and push, but an ambassador always has to remember that there are 190 others who will have to be convinced – or a vast majority of them – for action to take place,” Annan said.
Bolton begins the job as the Bush administration is threatening to take Iran to the Security Council to seek punishment if Tehran moves forward with its nuclear program.
Bolton, the former undersecretary of state for arms control, took an exceptionally hard line against nuclear proliferation by nations including Iran and North Korea, but administration officials have said that as ambassador to the U.N., he will carry out the views of Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and not make his own policy.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the minority leader, characterized Bush’s move as “the latest abuse of power by the Bush White House,” while another Democrat, Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, said in a statement that “even while the president preaches democracy around the world, he bends the rules and circumvents the will of Congress” at home.
Democrats also have been angry about caustic comments by Bolton about the U.N. and about the refusal of White House officials to turn over documents related to his service at the State Department. In the 1990s, he said several floors of the U.N. headquarters could be lopped off without being missed.
Bush, in his remarks, put the blame for the nomination holdup on “partisan delaying tactics by a handful of senators,” but Democrats countered that the handful numbered at least 42, including one Republican.
In remarks at Bush’s side, Bolton said that in the United Nations, the United States sought “a stronger, more effective organization, true to the ideals of its founders and agile enough to act in the 21st century.”
Administration officials had signaled for weeks that Bush would name Bolton to the post with a recess appointment. He is by far the highest-ranking of the 106 people that Bush has named by recess appointment during his 5 1/2 years in office.
Among them were Charles Pickering and William Pryor, whom Bush appointed to federal appeals courts in 2004.
President Clinton had 140 recess appointments during his two terms, including Mickey Kantor, who was named commerce secretary to succeed Ronald Brown, who died in a plane crash in 1996.