If You Want Something Done Right...

President Bush recess appointed John Bolton to the UN today, ending months of fighting in the Senate over whether or not the man was right for the job. We know he’s right for the job. He already has experience working with the UN. It is not as though we are tossing a newbie into a school of sharks. He is a diplomat, and is well-attuned to the UN, and what is needed to make strides in turning the organization around.

"This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about UN reform." That was a quote from the president regarding this move. He’s right. This post can’t sit open any longer. Our opponents in the UN are moving against this nation, and we need someone there that can head them off before they head us off. This isn’t a power struggle over who gets to control the UN. (In short, we do. We are it’s budget, and it’s military force, but that’s a topic for a different day.)

We want the UN to mean what it says when it speaks. We want it to have relevance in the world. This is why John Bolton was appointed. President Bush believes that Bolton can get the UN back on track, and that he will keep it on track. It is essential that the UN make a turn around in the face of the scandals that are rocking the fifty-plus-year-old institution.

There is the UN Oil-For-Food scandal, which Claudia Rosett broke more information in a story last week. It seems that French Ambassador Merrimee is deeply involved in the scandal now. Kofi Annan’s son, Kojo, is involved. George Galloway from Great Britain is involved. And the links are all starting to come together showing that Kofi knew exactly what was going on.

We have not necessarily a scandal, per se, but a serious problem with what the UN defines as important issues needing to be addressed throughout the world. Live 8 was a concert put on last month to raise money and awareness for AIDS in Africa. Now, I agree that it’s an important issue. (And no, I didn’t tune in. I avoided the TV like the plague that weekend.) AIDS is an epidemic sweeping across the continent of Africa. But the continent itself, for the most part, is in a Third-World stage right now. To truly stop the spread of AIDS, we need to make these people understand what they must do, and we’re doing it.

But the UN demand to help fight AIDS in Africa should be equally as strong as the demand to stop the genocide in Dharfur and Sudan. In Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe’s people are slaughtering tribal people and villagers left and right. He is now in the process of raising the cost of electricity and water by almost 250%, and if it cannot be paid, you lose your home. If you stand in his way, you lose your life. Mugabe is no better than any other tin-horn dictator in the world, and the UN has turned a blind eye to it, choosing instead to keep those dictators propped up with a concert under the guise of raising AIDS awareness. We handed a lot of money over in the OFF program, and it was divvied up among the thugs and bureaucrats. The people received nothing. I have a feeling Live 8 will have turned into that, as well.

The UN has a sex scandal going on in the Congo right now where peacekeepers (none from the US) are raping and molesting children. There’s a special group of prostitutes called "Kofi’s Dollar Girls" that were raped at a young age (some as young as eight) and sit around outside where the peacekeepers have their encampments. For one dollar, they will have sex with anyone who is willing to pay. It was the damned peacekeepers that started this mess. I thought when the UN went into a country, it was supposed to get better, not worse. (No folks, I’m not that naive; I know the UN is a waste of time.)

Point being, the UN is a mess. It’s time to clean it up. If the world wants to keep the UN around, then it’s time for some serious reform. John Bolton can probably get that done. And now that he’s been recessed, he can get started. Granted, his tenure is there only for one term of Congress. Then, when they reopen their doors for business at the beginning of the next session, they owe him his up-or-down vote. There is no debate. If they refuse to give it to him, Bush will simply recess him again.

And, of course, the Democrats aren’t pleased (which just tickles me to death.)

"The abuse of power and the cloak of secrecy from the White House continues," Kennedy said. "It's bad enough that the administration stonewalled the Senate by refusing to disclose documents highly relevant to the Bolton nomination. It's even worse for the administration to abuse the recess appointment power by making the appointment while Congress is in this five-week recess. 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."

Abuse of power? OK Senator, you opened up your mouth, and all I got to say is where's the proof, you imbecilic drunk? We don't need lectures in morality from the likes of you. The Senate is in recess. The president has the authority, under the Constitution, to appoint people to positions that need to be filled. That includes judges and ambassadors. Abuse of power, indeed. This accusation coming from a man that should have served a jail sentence some thirty years ago for letting a woman drown after he ran the car off the bridge. But Teddy had to run home and sober up first.

Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "The president has done a real disservice to our nation by appointing an individual who lacks to the credibility to further U.S. interests at the United Nations. I will be monitoring his performance closely to ensure that he does not abuse his authority as he has in the past."

Memo to Sen. Dodd: John Bolton has far more credibility in his service to this nation than you or your cronies can claim. And I’m still scratching my head over the supposed abuse of authority he executed in the past. Can anyone tell me what abuse he’s talking about. I mean, sure the man yells a bit, and pushes his staff, but I hardly see that as an abuse of authority. Not the kind of abuse that the Democrats engage in on a daily basis over any of the president’s qualified nominees like Bolton, Estrada, and Roberts.

"I am truly concerned that a recess appointment will only add to John Bolton's baggage and his lack of credibility with the United Nations," Voinovich said.

Oh, shut up, you sad excuse for a Republican. He’s the guy that helped the Democrats by having serious misgivings about Bolton on the day he was to be voted from the committee to the floor of the Senate. I guess he was away on a junket or something, because he had been gone during the two weeks of intense debate in the committee. When he comes home, he claims he knows nothing about the man. Then he has the utter audacity to make a stand on the floor of the Senate over nothing, and cry. Yes, the man cried on the floor of the Senate worrying about the future of his children and his grandchildren with John Bolton in the UN. These people are pathetic.

"There's just too much unanswered about Bolton, and I think the president would make a truly serious mistake if he makes a recess appointment," Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview.

Slow Joe misses the point. There is already more out there about John Bolton than his party is willing to give him credit for. It’s not a mistake by the president, this was a miscalculation by the Democrats. They counted on the president to be passive. They counted wrong.

And the president just sent a message not only to the Democrats, but the Republicans as well. That message was short, sweet, and to the point. HE is in charge of the party. He has an agenda that is better for the nation, and the nation agrees. They did that last November. It’s time those Republicans in the Senate wake up and smell the Starbucks. This president says what he means, and means what he says. If he has no one in his party that will help him in the Senate, then I have two suggestions for him.

First, you have the power to do it yourself. You just did today. Keep that in mind.

Second, quit supporting those that don’t support you. Forget Reagan’s "11th Commandmant" of thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. It’s old. It’s antiquated. And it’s hurting the party. Support those that want to make things better, and turn your back on the RINOs that keep being part of the problem.

Don’t worry about the Democrats. They don’t get this, and they’re just going to screw things up for themselves, anyway.

Publius II