Bush appoints Bolton in recess

President Bush yesterday used a recess appointment to install John R. Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defying Senate Democrats who had blocked an up-or-down vote on the nominee.

“I’ve used my constitutional authority to appoint John Bolton,” the president announced with Mr. Bolton at his side in the Roosevelt Room. “I’m sending Ambassador Bolton to New York with my complete confidence.”

Mr. Bolton, who was nominated nearly five months ago, expressed his gratitude to the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was on hand for the ceremony.

“I’m profoundly honored — indeed, humbled — by the confidence that you have shown by appointing me,” he told the president. “I am prepared to work tirelessly to carry out the agenda and initiatives that you and Secretary Rice direct.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose tenure at the world body has been tarnished by corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program and other scandals, said he would welcome Mr. Bolton, who has a reputation as a hard-charging reformer.

“We look forward to working with him, as I do with the other 190 ambassadors,” Mr. Annan told reporters. “We will welcome him at a time when we are in the midst of major reform.”

But Mr. Annan cautioned that the United Nations places a premium on diplomacy.

“It is all right for one ambassador to come and push,” he allowed. “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.”

Democrats, who twice blocked an up-or-down vote on Mr. Bolton by threatening to filibuster, were furious at the president for bypassing them.

“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.,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement sent to reporters before the president finished announcing the appointment.

The Massachusetts Democrat complained that the administration refused to turn over internal documents related to Mr. Bolton. He and other Democrats also groused that Mr. Bolton failed to tell Congress that he had been interviewed in a probe of faulty intelligence in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“By moving unilaterally to overrule the Senate and appoint a nominee who is being dogged by significant questions about his integrity on intelligence matters, Bush has reduced our nation’s ability to cooperate with our allies on the war on terror,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

However, Republican senators approved the decision overwhelmingly, saying that Democrat’s delaying tactics meant, in the words of Sen. George Allen of Virginia, that “the president had to do this.”

Some political analysts had expected Mr. Bush to make the recess appointment after yesterday’s evening newscasts or issue a written statement today on his way out of town for a monthlong vacation in Crawford, Texas. But Mr. Bush decided over the weekend to announce his move in front of news cameras with the nominee at his side.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan was asked by The Washington Times whether the high-profile ceremony was “in-your-face” defiance toward Democrats.

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