Defiant Bush Names Friend to Postal Board

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday defied a federal judge’s injunction and named a longtime friend to the Postal Service’s board of governors in a fight over who has authority to set mail rates.

Bush used a so-called recess appointment while Congress is not in session to put Thomas Ludlow Ashley, a former Democratic congressman from Ohio, on the 11-member Postal Service Board.

Six members of the board, who are engaged in a legal battle with Bush over a proposed 27-cent stamp for mass mail, won a court order Thursday barring Bush from firing them.

But one of the six is Crocker Nevin, whose term expired last month and whom Bush replaced Friday with Ashley. Since Nevin is a Democrat, Bush was required to replace him with a Democrat.

Ashley and Bush have been close friends since they attended Yale together.

The appointment could turn the governing board from 6 to 5 against Bush to 6 to 5 in favor of his demand to drop a suit challenging the 27-cent stamp.

Bush on Friday also asked the appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s preliminary injunction prohibiting him from firing the postal governors who are fighting him.

The Senate legal counsel’s office and a Senate post office subcommittee chaired by Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) are looking into the possibility of challenging Ashley’s appointment.

“We are hearing expressions of concern from the congressional leadership,” said Damon Thompson, a spokesman for Pryor.