President Bush named Sam Fox, a prominent University donor and member of the St. Louis community, ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday. Fox was installed using a recess appointment, a technique that allowed his installation over the objections of the Senate.
Fox was nominated last December, but his name was withdrawn from consideration on March 28 after coming under fire for his donations to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a political group that was involved with a series of controversial advertisements about Senator John Kerry’s military history during the 2004 presidential campaign.
But Political Science Professor Andrew Sobel said that ambassadorships to countries where the U.S. has stable relations are not major areas of concern.
“Countries like Belgium and the Netherlands, those are political payoffs. And it’s not just the Republicans; the Democrats do this too. In the practice of diplomacy, all the real relations are being done by the professional civil servant and foreign service staff,” said Sobel.
The donation, which totaled $50,000, was brought to the limelight because Senator Kerry is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, the committee that handled the nomination.
“The big issue is that Kerry challenged him in the congressional hearing and it made [Fox] look uncomfortable, maybe even silly, so Bush had to go outside the normal process to do it,” said Sobel. “This is part of the climate in D.C. right now.”
Fox’s installation was one of a number of recess appointments made Wednesday during a brief congressional recess. While Fox’s recess appointment is not expected to generate much controversy, others may.
“I think we’re likely to get some congressional response, not on Sam Fox, but probably more importantly on Susan Dudely, who was the president’s choice to be the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Review,” said Steven Smith, a professor of political science. “That is an office of management and budget, that oversees rule-making in the executive branch and therefore is a more important and controversial position.”
Dudely’s position is considered controversial because of its role for oversight of federal spending.
Fox could not be reached for comment.
“I think it was clear that people were putting the politics over the policy of needing to get an ambassador into Brussels. And so the President took his action there to get our ambassador in place – a qualified individual,” said Gordon Johndroe, Laura Bush’s press secretary, during a press gaggle on Thursday.
While Sobel said that the overall climate of political donations would probably not change, Fox’s direction of funds certainly affected his nomination in congress.
“If you are a member of the legislature and this has been where you’re running for office, you get sacrificed at the hands of misinformation, you should be upset about that. And now that the Democrats control the committee, Fox’s actions came back to haunt him,” stated Sobel.
Now that Fox has been named ambassador, the Senate will have one year to confirm his appointment or it will expire when Bush’s presidency ends. Originally provided for in the constitution as a way for the President to make appointments while Congress was out of session, recess appointments have recently become a political tool.
“A small minority of appointments have become more and more common in the last century,” said Smith. “During [divided party rule] presidents have become a little frustrated when congresses are slow to get appointments passed. Ultimately, though, these recess appointments do not last forever.”
– Additional reporting by Laura Geggel