holy cow... rhymes with wow!

Rove and Bush play hardball because it appears to be more about power than civil governance to them. A recess appointment to push Bolton through may be thought of as stemming the tide of the inevitable lame duck disease. Despite the falling poll numbers they need to show congress that they still hold the power and a recess appointment though ham handed may achieve that ...for a week or so.
It is more likely to turn the stomachs of more moderate members (are their any left?) who will resent both Bolton and the leadership and cause them to lose faith in or fear of the administration.

Steve,

It all depends on timing. What do you think of the following possibile Rove strategy?

* to NOT have a recess appointment of Bolton;
* instead, hold one till Rhenq. announces retirement, then send both nominations forward with the expectations that the Dems will object to Bush's Chief Justice nomination.

This then puts the WH in a posture to say, "See, those Democrates are stubborn and obstinate!"

Steve:

I was reviewing what we know about the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), whose minutes were seized in Fitzgerald's pursuit of the Plame Affair. Any idea whether Bolton was also a member? He's never named in the public descriptions of the group (mostly one WaPo article). But I'm wondering if any of your sources would know.

Rhenquist wants a republican president to appoint his successor, just not Bush. Some short time ago, Rhenquist said he was concerned with the policies being put into action by the neo-cons. I think R. will hold on as long as possible and hope that he makes it till (possibly) McCain is President.

shannon ---

Pray tell, how did you come to know about Rhenq's concerns and his desire that a non-Bush Republican president appoints his successor? If true, it offers some amount of sanity (and far fetched hope) in these absurbly bushy times.

What will be the repercussions if - or when - Bolton's appointment is announced on Friday evening? Is the Bush White House throwing in the towel on getting legislation out of this Congress? And why is Bolton at the UN more important than getting any more signed domestic legislation?

To what extent is getting Bolton in place just part of the pre-Iran-War setup?

Shannon,

I too would love to know the source of this info, which is highly reassuring.

I admit I've been wondering since the shrub seized power why none of the Supremes have retired. Particularly since there were all kinds of rumors about that a bunch of them were considering doing so. Crise de conscience, perhaps??

Yeah, it seems reasonable to infer that none of the Supremes want Bush to appoint their replacements.

It's John "Death Squads" Negroponte, isn't it? I seem to remember Matt Yglesias...

Here's a totally opposite take on the Supremes--or at least Rehnquist.

If Rehnquist were to retire today, both sides would have 6 months to fight over the successor. Literally NOTHING would get done.

But if Rehnquist were to need to step down for health reasons at the beginning of September, say, then Bush could appoint someone and expect immediate consideration. No time for PFAW to rally the troops, you either take Estrada or you leave him.

c'mon steve, enough with the attempted whitewash of Negroponte. So what if he was Powell's buddy? Powell drank the kool-aid, in case you haven't noticed. And Negroponte is practically state-sponsored terrorism's pin-up boy, thanks to his complicity in some of the worst atrocities in central america in the 1980s....

Whether Negroponte worked closely with Colin Powell or not has very little bearing on what he would do for John Bolton.

Colin Powell is hardly the moderate everybody wishfully thinks he is. Steve, this website has been great for making me rethink what it means to be a Republican moderate. Yet too often we all get taken in by a reputation for moderation -- that never, and I mean really almost never, is proven to be moderation in substance.

So I really do think it's long past time for folks to stop pretending McCain, Powell, and many more are moderate or reasonable -- until they show it in their actions.

Negroponte knew of, and likely helped run, death squads in Central America. Colin Powell was one of the first military commanders to receive the letter sent up the chain of command to blow the whistle on My Lai. ANd he certainly was willing if not eager to aid and abet Bush: despite knowing the weak evidence, Powell proved to be equally weak-willed when it came time to come through for the country.

Steve

You should delete that post with the Dish Network links in it. Providing the links on your site is a cheap method of boosting the spammers results in a Google search.