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Sidestepping Senate, Bush sends Bolton to U.N.

Recess appointment ends nomination impasse

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush plucked his long-stalled nomination of John Bolton for U.N. ambassador out of the hands of the Senate on Monday, naming the controversial nominee to the post through a recess appointment.

Bush said the job at the United Nations was "too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about U.N. reform."

"His mission is now to help the U.N. reform itself to renew its founding promises for the 21st century," Bush told reporters.

The newly minted ambassador was sworn in and flew to New York to assume his duties Monday afternoon.

The president's move comes nearly five months after he tapped Bolton to serve as the head of the U.S. mission to the United Nations, and six weeks after a second attempt to move his nomination through the Senate failed.

Senate Democrats -- joined by a prominent Republican, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich -- blocked a final vote on Bolton amid concerns about his record, demands for the White House to release certain documents and questions about whether he had the temperament to serve in a critical job.

The recess appointment puts Bolton in the job until a new Congress takes office in January 2007.

"We seek a stronger, more effective organization, true to the ideals of its founders and agile enough to act in the 21st century," Bolton said Monday. "It will be a distinct privilege to be an advocate for Americans' values and interests at the U.N. -- and in the words of the U.N. Charter, to help maintain international peace and security."

One of Bolton's harshest critics, Sen. Christopher Dodd, predicted Bolton's credibility at the world body would be damaged by the recess appointment, since Bush failed to get the nomination through the Senate.

"I think you're going to have an awfully difficult time with Mr. Bolton building the kind of support the United States needs today at the United Nations," said Dodd, D-Connecticut, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Bolton spent Bush's first term serving as undersecretary of state for arms control and disarmament. In confirmation hearings for his new job, witnesses accused him of trying to get intelligence analysts who disagreed with him transferred or fired.

Carl Ford, the former chief of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, called Bolton "a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" and a "serial abuser" of subordinates.

In recent days, Senate Democrats also complained that Bolton gave the Senate false information when he failed to note on a questionnaire that he had been questioned by the department's inspector general as part of a joint probe by the State Department and CIA into allegations that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger in Africa. The State Department acknowledged the error in Bolton's statement last week.

Senate GOP leaders twice failed to muster the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster and move Bolton's nomination to a floor vote.

The White House, citing executive privilege, also refused Senate Democrats' calls for records of communications intercepts Bolton sought from the National Security Agency in his capacity at the State Department.

Democrats are also seeking documents related to congressional testimony Bolton gave in 2003 about Syrian weapons programs to see if he exaggerated the intelligence.

Bolton has been a critic of the United Nations in the past and made comments dismissing the world body's value on the global stage. But Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, said the United States needs "a strong voice" in a body he called "mismanaged, perhaps corrupt."

Under the Constitution, a president has the power to make appointments without Senate confirmation when Congress goes into recess. Lawmakers began their annual August sabbatical on Friday.

But Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, called Bolton's recess appointment an "abuse of power."

"It's bad enough that the administration stonewalled the Senate by refusing to disclose documents highly relevant to the Bolton nomination," he said. "It's even worse for the administration to abuse the recess appointment power by making the appointment while Congress is in this five-week recess."

Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, said he would have preferred a final confirmation vote for Bolton, but called the recess appointment "necessary to ensure our representation at the United Nations."

But Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world body looks forward to working with Bolton, "as I do with the other 190 ambassadors. And we will welcome him at a time when we are in the midst of major reform."

Annan said he was informed of the president's decision in advance of the announcement.

Asked whether the fact Bolton does not have the Senate's backing would affect his standing, Annan replied that it is the "president's prerogative" to make the appointment, adding, "from where I stand, we will work with him."

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