Posted on 08/03/2005 6:17:31 AM PDT by OESY
President Bush opted again yesterday for a functioning government. Faced with an endless Senate stall, he used his recess-appointment power to install Peter Flory as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy.... [L]et us suggest that he pick up his pen to fill two even more senior positions at the Pentagon -- Gordon England to succeed Paul Wolfowitz as Deputy Secretary and Eric Edelman to replace Douglas Feith as Undersecretary for Policy, the department's No. 3.
Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner called Monday for Mr. Bush to do just that -- which we take as an admission he's given up hope for Senate confirmation anytime soon. With a war on, you'd think Senators would have an interest in keeping the Pentagon's top jobs fully staffed....
For Republican Olympia Snowe, it's the preservation of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and other military facilities in her home state of Maine....
Ms. Snowe's hold on Mr. England is supposed to be secret -- her office will neither confirm nor deny its existence -- but such secrets are seldom kept in Washington and we have learned that the hold is hers.
At least Senator Levin has the grace to be open about his holds on the nominations of Mr. Edelman, who was named in May, and Mr. Flory, who has been awaiting confirmation for more than a year. His beef isn't with the nominees, whom he says he supports, but with the Pentagon, which is citing executive privilege in refusing to give Mr. Levin information on 58 documents relating to Undersecretary Feith's role in planning the Iraq war.
The Pentagon has already handed over thousands of pages of documents -- the last tranche went up to the Hill last Tuesday -- but that's not enough to satisfy Mr. Levin's clearly partisan obsessions....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Pardon the language from this old lady, but I am damned sick and tired of these enemies of America doing everything in their power to harm us.
When our prez has to do the senates job by recesses, it only tells me how spineless our senate pubs are...God bless President Bush, a man with nerves of steel!
SO TRUE SO TRUE
You relay the sentiment of most Americans like me, yes, most of us are sick and tired of their BS and games.
The U.S. Senate is a disgrace. Accelerating base closures to punish senators who put a base ahead of the national interest is a fine idea. It may be one of the few ways to get their attention. These people think they are God, and they need to learn otherwise, soon.
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