Justin Webb, "informing" us again

John Bolton’s nomination to become the US’s representative at the UN continues to be filibustered, raising the possibility that Bush will use his constitutional powers to appoint him during an upcoming congressional recess. So how does our favorite Washington correspondent for the BBC report this situation?

[Bush] has the power to appoint his man over the heads of the senators during their recess for the 4 July holiday - an appointment which would last until 2007.

Would that look like a bold move overcoming petty partisan politics, or the desperate strategy of a lame-duck second-term president?

Mr Bush's advisors must decide.

Funny, it had never occurred to me that such an appointment might be the “desperate strategy of a lame-duck” president, and I highly doubt that Karl Rove is wringing his hands over this one. But then again, it hadn’t occurred to the BBC either back in 1999 when lame-duck President Clinton used precisely the same strategy over a weekend holiday to appoint James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg after a couple of Republicans tied up his nomination in committee and refused to allow a vote. Oddly enough, back then the BBC refrained from offering up suggestions as to what the move should “look like” to its readers

Apparently, to the BBC, only when recess appointments are used by Republicans…or is it just Bush?...does the strategy begin to take on the whiff of desperation.