Amazed

Bush amazed me.

From the LA Times web site:

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday appointed as his top regulatory official a conservative academic who has written that markets do a better job of regulating than the government does and that it is more cost-effective for people who are sensitive to pollution to stay indoors on smoggy days than for government to order polluters to clean up their emissions.

As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Susan E. Dudley will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies.

In a flurry of nominations and appointments, Bush also named a researcher at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, as deputy director of the Social Security Administration. Andrew G. Biggs has been an outspoken proponent of converting Social Security benefits into self-directed retirement accounts, which Bush favors but Democrats have stopped cold. Bush nominated Biggs to that post in November, but the process stalled in February when the Senate Finance Committee refused to hold confirmation hearings because of his views on privatization.

And as ambassador to Belgium he installed Sam Fox, a St. Louis businessman and GOP fundraiser who contributed $50,000 to the Swift Boat veterans' controversial campaign against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 2004 presidential race. The White House actually withdrew Fox's nomination to that same job last week in the face of strong opposition from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

How did he amaze me? Because I didn't think he could get sneakier. Once again using a recess as a way to make appointments that wouldn't pass muster in the Congress -- how low is that?

Is it impeachment time now? Yes, I think it is. Not just because of this, but because of the indicative nature -- that Mr. Bush simply does not care what the Congress thinks. Doing this end run against the Senate -- that's just plain wrong. That ability was intended for quick action during periods when the Senate could not be brought into session. Clearly, this isn't the case now. It's an abuse of power.

I'm not an alarmist, but now I find myself wondering: if he next said that the Congress should be disbanded as irrelevant, or 'counter revolutionary' -- if he said that the Presidency needed to be defended, and called out the tanks -- would I be all that surprised? A strong Presidency is one thing. This one is verging on the imperial, or the dictatorial.

Impeach him. Censure him, at the least. Don't tolerate this. As a bumper sticker I saw today put it --

Fight Mad Cowboy Disease!