The Recess Appointment

President Bush did what he likes best this week...he bypassed Congress. Using his constitutional right to a recess appointment, he appointed Sam Fox to be Ambassador to Belgium.

Fox is controversial because of $50,000 he donated to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who in 2004 smeared John Kerry's name during the Presidential campaign. Military veterans urged a vote against Fox's nomination, so it stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate and sensing defeat, Bush withdrew his nomination.

So Bush did, like he did with John Bolton, appoint Fox using a recess appointment, which means Fox will serve until he is confirmed by the next Congress in 2009, when the whole thing will be moot since there will be a new President and probably a new Ambassador to Belgium.

The recess appointment is a very interesting thing. The whole idea of the recess appointment was because of the amount of travelling Senators did in the 1790's, they would have long recess, sometimes lasting five or six months, specifically during the summer. However, since the Second World War, that is no longer the case, so the recess appointment is essentially used by a President to bypass Congress instead of what it was initially used for; filling vacancies during long recesses due to long travel.

Nevertheless, every President has used the recess appointment relatively unfairly. George Washington sparked the first controversial use of it when he appointed South Carolina judge John Ruthledge to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1795. Ruthledge was likely going to be rejected by the Senate because of his supposed mental illness (he used to eat the gavel,) and because of his opposition to Jay's Treaty. Washington's appointment of Ruthledge annoyed the Senate, but he served as Chief Justice until after the 1796 elections, when he was rejected by the new Senate.