Dodd wants probe after Bush skirts Senate (Sam Fox appointment)

[sabra]

Source: Journal Inquirer

U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd is challenging President Bush's "stealthy" appointment of a wealthy Missouri businessman to be U.S. ambassador to Belgium, saying it was "underhanded and an abuse of executive authority" to act when Congress was not in session.

"I seriously question the legality of the president's use of the recess appointment authority in this instance," the Connecticut Democrat said Wednesday after the White House announced the diplomatic appointment of Sam Fox, who headed Bush's 2004 re-election campaign in Missouri.

"I intend to seek an opinion on the legality of this appointment from the Government Accountability Office and invite other Senates to join with me in this request," he added.

...

Dodd's junior colleague from Connecticut, U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, also appeared at that confirmation hearing to praise Fox as the child of immigrants who played by the rules to become a successful businessman and generous philanthropist - someone who "represents what America is all about."

Fox and his wife had contributed $21,000 to Lieberman's Senate campaign committee the day after last November's election.


Read more: http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18172107&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6

[Tyler Durden]

1. Skip the hearing and go right to the Impeachment proceedings.

And take that son of a bitch Lieberman with them.

[saigon68]

7. Ah yes Joementum

[Tyler Durden]

9. Maybe we deserve him.

"Every country has the government it deserves."

Joseph Marie de Maistre (French Diplomat, Writer, Philosopher and Politician, 1753-1821)


"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."
"I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time."

H. L. Mencken

"You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too."

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006, and I miss him)

[saigon68]

10. Yes, well put

Too bad someone forgot to "flush the toilet"

[Nickster]

2. FINALLY! I can't believe it took this long for someone to ask about the Constitutionality of this

crap. It so blatantly skirts the whole basis of Congressional approval, why ever go to Congress for approval of any of your appointees?

[ccpup]

5. in all honesty,

the Dems have only had the microphone since January. Before then, the repugs and the media kept them fairly well muzzled and basically powerless.

You'd be amazed how powerful it can be to finally have the microphone again!

[Wickerman]

3. ...someone who "represents what America is all about." Joe, Joe, Joe

Is Fox what we really want America to be "all about?"

Please, Joe, retire while you are still at least deluding YOURSELF that have some dignity.

[tsuki]

4. Fox is a typical Repig. From Mother Jones:

Sam Fox purchased a sunken replica of the Santa Maria for $1 three decades ago, and he's been making a fortune from hidden treasures ever since. The Harbour Group, the investment company he founded in 1976, has acquired more than 120 manufacturers that produce everything from funnels and industrial springs to pressure washers and do-it-yourself repair kits. Fox insists that Harbour does not engage in leveraged buyouts. "We don't traffic in companies," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We build companies. They are not a piece of meat."

But Fox wastes little time in carving up and selling the firms he buys. His business philosophy, according to the St. Louis Business Journal, is simple: "invest heavily in new technology, equipment, and management knowhow, then consolidate similar operations to cut costs and boost efficiency." Harbour then cashes in by taking a company public or selling it. In 1999, the company enjoyed annual revenues of $1.5 billion.

/snip

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/mojo_400/23_fox.html

Welfare King Ambassador Swiftboat and his multi-million taxpayer paid European vacation.

[wake.up.america]

6. In some cases, the United States has complete idiots repesenting it,

[19jet54]

8. Jewish Christian thing?

Lieberman & Fox - Bush thinks he is Judea-Christian - SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE!

[Ian David]

11. Some people say that Sam Fox got the job the same way Victor Ashe did

I think we need to coin a new phrase to describe the Bush Regime. It's a Fellatiocracy.

See:



<snip>

UPDATE June 5, 2006 The woman in question is Leola McConnell. She is the Liberal Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada in 2006 (see below)

June 4, 2006 -- More on George W. Bush's "Sanctity of Marriage" gay marriage constitutional ban.

George W. Bush's marital problems have just taken another turn for the worse. Apparently, Mr. Bush has not only engaged in an extra-marital affair with a member of the opposite sex who is also a senior member of his Cabinet, but also a member of the same sex. WMR received the following release this morning from Leola McConnell, Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada (who has been endorsed by WMR). McConnell is a one-time professional dominatrix.


"President Bush's speech to the nation Monday. If he doesn't say he's a gay American or at the least a bisexual one then he shouldn't be making one at all. And the notion that it would be in regards to writing bigotry into our nation's Constitution is reprehensible. Too bad it isn't me doing the rebuttal because in 1984, I watched him perform (with the enthusiasm of homosexual male who had done this many times before) a homosexual act on another man, namely Victor Ashe. Victor Ashe is the current Ambassador to the nation of Poland who should also come out like former Governor McGreevey of New Jersey and admit to being a gay American. Other homo-erotic acts were also performed by then private citizen George Bush because I performed one of them on him personally.

I am the woman this website ( http://bushssecretlifein84.tripod.com /) speaks of that has been posted on the net nearly two years now. None of this would be the business of anyone but President Bush's little ruse to save his failed presidency by using DOMA to divide Americans one from the other has to be exposed as the act of a desperate closeted homosexual man. The only crime in being GLBT is in the hiding. The President needs to come clean with the American people about his own past sexual behavior before he tries to besmirch the humanity of people in search of sincerely committing to the same bonds of matrimony he's afforded. He violated his own vows of monogamy having a homosexual affair with a long time family friend of whom his wife had no knowledge. His hypocrisy seems to know no bounds.

I had planned to run for governor of Nevada without going into any of this but his planned nationally televised address to the nation makes it necessary for me to address his attempt at division in as public a way as he picked to try this Bushification of reality regarding same sex marriages.

Sincerely,
Leola McConnell
Liberal Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada"

More:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/341507.shtml

[IChing]

12. Dems Call for Review of Bush Appointment (Fox)

Source: Forbes

Democrats called for an investigation Thursday into whether President Bush acted illegally in appointing Sam Fox ambassador to Belgium.

A day earlier, Bush named Republican fundraiser Fox to the post as a recess appointment - a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, where Democrats had derailed his nomination.

"We view the recess appointment of Mr. Fox as a clear abuse of the President's recess appointment power," three Democratic senators wrote in a letter to the Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing agency.

The senators - Democrats Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Robert Casey of Pennsylvania - also asked if Fox's appointment could be terminated if a Senate vote rejected him.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/05/ap3588828.html

[crim son]

13. I don't know if he acted illegally or not.

I do appreciate the fact that attention is being called to the recess appointments. The man thinks he's a fucking dictator.

[Kiouni]

14. who's playing politics?

He claims we are playing politics by blocking his nomination so he bypasses the whole political process. Bulls@#$!

[lpbk2713]

15. One of the oldest tactics in the rethuglican playbook.

They point fingers and scream and make false claims about how the other side does what THEY are most guilty of.

[Kiouni]

18. look at this hand while I beat the hell out of you

with the other, huh? yep, gets old.

[Fridays Child]

16. Is the issue that he withdrew the nomination and, thus cannot make a recess appointment?

The Constitution is silent on this, as far as I understand. But it does seem to indicate that the vacancy must actually happen during the recess.

[IChing]

17. I think that could be the legal point

they are asking for clarification on, anyway
I like the effort and the attention they are giving it.

[dsc]

21. actually the main thing I have read

is that if a position has a fixed salary then a person can't work for free, like Fox is intending to do.

[jazzjunkysue]

19. Joe The Kiss Liebermann was the only one to stand with the Traitor

in Chief?

I'd love to know what the Bushies have on Joe. Photos with Jeff Gannon?

[cascagraphic]

20. kick