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Bush places Bolton in UN Ambassador post

President George W. Bush bypassed the Senate and installed John Bolton as his ambassador to the United Nations on Monday over strong Democratic objections that he was abusing power and undermining the credibility of the United States.

The president said he was sending Mr. Bolton, a combative, outspoken protege of Vice President Dick Cheney, to New York with "complete confidence." Bush praised Bolton as a man who "believes passionately in the goals of the United Nations Charter, to advance peace and liberty and human rights."

In a brief announcement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Bush said he was forced to act because the United States had gone for six months without a chief envoy at the United Nations, which is to convene for its General Assembly next month. It was the first time since 1948 that a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations had been named by a procedure in the Constitution called a "recess appointment".

"This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about UN reform," Bush said as Bolton stood to his right and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to his left.