Knowing that the Senate was not going to confirm his choice of Swift Boat Funder Sam Fox to be the Ambassador to Belgium, President Bush appointed him and two others to posts using the Congressional recess to make interim appointments. Considering the strong Congressional opposition to the President’s choices, Bush just gave the finger to the Democrats and John Kerry.
Consider the following exchange in the Senate between Senator Kerry and Sam Fox as recorded by Bob Geiger:
“Kerry: Let me ask you about that. On August 5, 2005, John McCain called the SBVT “completely nauseating, dishonest and dishonorable.” McCain pointed out “it’s the same kind of deal that was pulled on me” when he ran against Bush in 2000.
On August 15, John Warner, Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and former Navy Secretary said “I can speak to the process, that we did extraordinary careful checking on that kind of medal, a very high one, that it goes through the Secretary. So I’d stand by the process that awarded Kerry that medal and I think we best acknowledge that his heroism did gain that recognition. I feel he deserved it
.”He was then, incidentally, in the Navy — he signed my award.August 8, 2004, General Tommy Franks called the smear boat attacks “vitriolic and hyperbole.”
On August 7, 2004, Mike Johannes the Republican governor of Nebraska says the ads were “trash.”
Now these are Republican leaders. These are the leaders of your own party. President Bush said that he thought that my service was honorable and they shouldn’t be questioning it. Yet, even when your own candidate does that, you saw fit to put $50,000 on the line to continue the smear.
My question to you is why? When you say you couldn’t have known — these were people very publicly condemning it. How could you not have known?
Fox: I guess, Mr. Senator, when I’m asked I just generally give.”
Fox withdrew his name from consideration after the hearing but George Bush also likes to just give to his friends. “Here’s an ambassadorship Sam. Thanks for doing the dirty work,” Bush silently is saying to himself.
In addition Bush appointed two others to positions that were opposed by Democrats for good reason. As the New York Times notes today in an editorial entitled “No Recess from Bad Appointments“, the other two appointments are just as objectionable to reasonable people and out of tune with what America needs now. The NY Times says “All three are extraordinary bad appointments – and three more reminders of how Mr Bush’s claim s of wanting to work with Congress’s Democratic leadership are just empty words”
“…the appointment of Susan E. Dudley to the Office of Management and Budget, where she will review regulations from major federal agencies before they are issued. Ms. Dudley has made no secret of her hostility toward government regulation, criticizing everything from fuel economy standards for light trucks to a national drinking water standard for arsenic, arguing that the market will almost always suffice. This makes her just right for this administration but wrong for consumers and the environment.
Similarly, Andrew Biggs, the president’s choice to be deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, is a champion of partially privatizing the program he is being sent to administer. The agency dispenses checks to beneficiaries and traditionally provides factual information on the state of the program. But under this president the agency has become increasingly politicized, using questionable arguments and projections to support Mr. Bush’s drive for private accounts. As a lower ranking official in the agency, Mr. Biggs was in the thick of that politicization. His appointment is a sure sign that Mr. Bush intends to keep using the agency as a propaganda machine to push a privatization scheme that has little public support.”
Again and again we see the blind dogmatism of the Bush/Cheney/Rove and Republican attempts how to run the country to benefit corporate America . Forget Republican promises and words to the contrary- look at their actions. They speak louder than any words coming from the White House.
