WASHINGTON â?? By sidestepping the Senate and naming controversial nuclear-arms diplomat John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations during a congressional recess, President Bush has thrilled the Republican Party’s right while stymieing moderates of both parties holding out for a more conciliatory choice.
The appointment ends nearly five months of political battling and stalemate over a nomination that the president insisted was “the right man at the right time” for the key diplomatic post. By appointing Mr. Bolton, Mr. Bush sends to the UN a longtime stinging critic of the international organization just as the United States is pressing for significant reforms in how the UN works.
Leading Domestic Insurgent Ted Kennedy had this to say in a statement,
The abuse of power and the cloak of secrecy from the White House continues. It’s bad enough that the administration stonewalled the Senate by refusing to disclose documents highly relevant to the Bolton nomination. 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. It’s a devious maneuver that evades the constitutional requirement of Senate consent and only further darkens the cloud over Mr. Bolton’s credibility at the U.N.
Once again, more over-the-top, fact-free rhetoric from that paragon of virtue, Ted Kennedy. This penchent for partisan flamethrowing often leaves Teddy at odds with his late brother JFK. After all, JFK rightly used recess appointments when he was president,
President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in October 1961, getting around opposition from Southern senators. Their resistance had weakened by the following September, and the Senate approved him 54-16.
So did Bill Clinton, 140 times. Strange, but I couldn’t find a single quote from Teddy denouncing him.
JFK was also wise enough to understand that tax cuts created an environment for economic growth. Teddy screams with all his might that tax cuts are for the rich at the expense of the poor.
W. James Antle of Enter Stage Right reminds us,
While President Kennedy is an icon of modern American liberalism on a par with Franklin D. Roosevelt, he did not always take positions that would endear him with today’s Ben and Jerry-munching left. He was a proponent of increased defense spending and an aggressive anti-communist stance during the Cold War. His friends in the Senate included Joe McCarthy, who he did not vote to censure, and Barry Goldwater. And he proposed what was at the time the biggest tax cut in history.
What was his tax policy? Bruce Bartlett explains,
President Kennedy’s Taxation Task Force… This was a group of outside economists and tax experts recruited by Kennedy aide Theodore Sorenson after the 1960 election. It was this group that first suggested that Kennedy support creation of an Investment Tax Credit, which he did in 1962, and an across the board reduction in tax rates, which he did in 1963. The proposal Kennedy put forward on January 24, 1963 would have cut the top individual income tax rate from 91 percent to 65 percent, and reduced the maximum capital gains tax from 25 percent to 19.5 percent.