Up-or-Down Yours

    

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ending a five-month standoff over a controversial nomination, President Bush on Monday used a recess appointment to name John Bolton the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. ... The move bypasses the confirmation process in the Senate, where Democrats had blocked the nomination in a dispute over documents and accusations that Bolton lacks the temperament to hold the U.N. post.

"A majority of United States senators agree that he's the right man for the job," Bush said. "Yet because of partisan-delaying tactics by a handful of senators, John was unfairly denied the up-or-down vote that he deserves."

....

Senate Democrats held up the nomination after the White House refused, citing executive privilege, to provide records of communications intercepts Bolton sought from the National Security Agency when he was the State Department's point man on arms control.

In recent days, Democrats also complained that Bolton gave the Senate false information.

The State Department last week acknowledged that Bolton incorrectly told the Foreign Relations Committee in a questionnaire that he had not been interviewed as part of any investigation within the past five years.

The department said its inspector general interviewed Bolton as part of a joint probe by the State Department and CIA into alleged attempts by Iraq to procure uranium from Niger.

Drivin' the agenda... drivin' the agenda.... Who cares what anybody else thinks?

» CNN.com - Bush names Bolton as U.N. ambassador - Aug 1, 2005