Sam Fox is self made millionaire who came to this country as a Jewish refugee child from the Ukraine. He's also a philanthropist well known for his openhandedness to Jewish causes and the former head of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Among his other sins, Fox donated $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and led a fund-raising campaign to pay for the recent legal defense of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Earlier this year, President Bush nominated Fox, 77, of St. Louis as the US ambassador to Belgium.
One of the senior Democrats sitting on the committee overseeing his nomination was none other than our old friend John Kerry (d-MA) who grilled Fox about his contribution to the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth and petulantly demanded that Fox apologize to him personally for donating to the Swifties and exercising his first amendment rights. When Fox refused, Kerry killed his nomination in committee.
When the Senate broke for their Easter recess, President Bush rectified this disgusting situation by giving Fox a recess appointment for his ambassadorship - which means he will serve until near the end of the Bush presidency.
Needless to say, the Senate Democrats are outraged at President Bush actually exercising his legal rights under Federal law to make such appointments.
Now, the Senate Democrats are calling for an investigation into whether President Bush acted illegally in appointing Sam Fox ambassador to Belgium.
"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.
Dodd said in a statement that Bush's actions were "deceptive at best and illegal at worst."
"His unwillingness to denounce the reprehensible activities of the Swift Boat organization, and express regret for providing $50,000 to bankroll the organization, convinced me that he would not be an acceptable candidate to represent the United States abroad."
In other words, Senator Dodd felt that Fox should be punished for refusing to kowtow to Kerry and for daring to exercise his first amendment rights.
This is a despicable sentiment that unfortunately is all too common on the Left - the favoring of freedom of speech and expression only when it agrees with the Left's political agenda.
From the likes of Kerry, Dodd and others of that ilk, I expect no better.
It is, nonetheless, an amazing example of hypocrisy that George Orwell would have loved.
President Bush, flawed though he is deserves credit for defying these enemies of freedom and doing the right thing.So does Senator Joe Lieberman, who took the unusual step of testifying on Sam Fox's behalf during his confirmation hearings.
And by the way....in spite of many public promises to do so, Senator Kerry has still not signed form 180 to release his full service records.
Apparently he knows something he'd rather the rest of us didn't. Although, to my mind, his conduct after his service in Vietnam is much more questionable than anything he did or didn't do while he was there.
Just as Pelosi has violated the Logan Act, why was John Kerry allowed to get away with his trip to Paris and his meeting with the Viet Cong?
ReplyDeleteCan't he still be prosecuted?
No..unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteKerry, actually, could have been prosecuted for outright treason, since we were at war with North Vietnam (that's who he actually met with, not the VC) and he was still in uniform in the reserve at the time.
Unfortunately, Pelosi will likely get off scot free as well, and for the same reason - a lack of political will in Washington.
As with any other assault on freedom, this will only intensify the next occurrence.