(I may keep this one near the top of the site a while. I'm enjoyin'g the hell out of it.)

Bush Uses Recess Appointment Power to
Install GOP Fundraiser Sam Fox as Ambassador

WASHINGTON —  President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress where Democrats had derailed Fox's nomination.

Democrats had denounced Fox for his 2004 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group's TV ads, which claimed that Sen. John Kerry exaggerated his military record in Vietnam, were viewed as a major factor in the Massachusetts Democrat losing the election.

Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation, Bush withdrew the nomination last month. On Wednesday, with Congress out of town for a spring break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.

This means Fox can remain ambassador until the end of the next session of Congress, effectively through the end of the Bush presidency. ...

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Bush Tells Kerry To Stick It In His Hat
Bruce Kesler

Reuters reports that President Bush has made a recess appointment of Republican and philanthropist Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium, despite John Kerry and his accomplices blocking consideration of the nomination by the full Senate.

I wrote here about John Kerry’s contamination of history, due to Kerry’s refusal to reveal his records to the public, and his repeatedly being caught in exaggerations and lies, and the failure of the major media to care. Kerry took his vendetta against an honorable man – Sam Fox -- for having contributed to the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, who exposed Kerry and despite odds made it stick. Consequently, as even a major Democrat political law expert reflected, Kerry and gang introduced a new restriction onto free political speech.  ..

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.04.04.20:08

The Politics Of The Petty
Ed Morrissey

Senate Democrats are outraged over the recess appointment of Sam Fox by President Bush, just a few days after the White House withdrew his nomination for Ambassador. Fox, who contributed to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign in 2004, ran afoul of John Kerry on the Foreign Relations committee:

[...]

The outrage is misplaced. Despite Mary Ann Akers' unsupported assertion that the SBVT campaign "smeared" Kerry, no one has been able to refute the substantial evidentiary and testimonial record of their charges. Oh, people claim that the 250+ Swift Boat veterans have been discredited, but the best they can do is to dispute one detail in one particular battle with opposing testimony. Kerry, who made his combat service an issue in the 204 campaign as a way to cheap-shot Bush's service in the National Guard, created entire fantasies about Christmas in Cambodia, a magic hat, and allowed at least one man to deliver speeches about his personal experiences with Kerry during battles in which the man could not possibly have participated.

All of this happened three years ago. Sam Fox made a legitimate contribution to a group of veterans whom Kerry angered by publishing their photograph and implying they supported his presidential bid. Rather than focus on Fox's qualifications, or even pretending to do so, Kerry and his cohorts demanded explanations for Fox's political views on a race long over, a breathtaking bit of narcissism and more than a little Orwellian. ...

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Jules C: Laugh of the Day

*** Update and bump. Previous timestamp 2007.07.05.12:55

The Nature Of Political Appointments -- And Opposition
Ed Morrissey

Jules Crittenden scores a bulls-eye today in a post regarding the recess appointment of Sam Fox as Ambassador to Belgium. After all the screeching from Democrats about firing prosecutors over their politics, John Kerry and his allies attempted to deep-six Fox for his engagement against Kerry in 2004, and Jules wonders where the Democrats draw lines:

If it’s wrong for the president to fire political appointees over their politics, doesn’t that make it wrong for senators to oppose political appointees over theirs? Wait a minute. I’m getting confused. The president fired them over their performance, but the Senate only gave a damn about Fox’s politics. So much crap flying around these days, its hard to sort out what’s what. But I think the Dem Cong might need to start holding hearings about itself.

But when I see moves like this, I realize I’m starting to really enjoy the Dem Cong.

I don't think firing the prosecutors was a wise or desirable move, especially in the current political environment, and I think Alberto Gonzales has handled it incompetently. Nevertheless, the President has the plenary power to appoint and dismiss them, just as he does with ambassadors, for every purpose he desires except the obstruction of justice.

And the Senate Democratic Caucus has proven this point with Fox. ...