Reply #11: Bush defies Congress in filling defense, foreign policy posts

[tuvor]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush has defied Congress again by placing a slew of controversial political allies in key national security and foreign policy posts, circumventing the requisite approval process in the Senate.

Bush resorted to the same recess appointment procedure he used in August to install John Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations, despite Capitol Hill's strong opposition to the nominee.

On Wednesday, the bureaucratic maneuver was used to fill key vacancies in the Defense, State and
Homeland Security Departments with officials whose approval by the Senate was in doubt.

The White House said Bush had appointed Gordon England, a former Navy secretary, to the post of deputy secretary of defense left vacant by Paul Wolfowitz, a leading architect of the Iraq war, who resigned the second-highest Pentagon job last year to become president of the World Bank.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usbushiraqpolitics