Bush Uses Constitutional Clause to Fill Another Post

President Bush again invoked a constitutional provision enabling him to bypass the Senate and install a nominee whose nomination had been blocked. This time, he named Peter Flory to be an assistant secretary of Defense.

The move Tuesday came a day after Bush used the same power to install John R. Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Constitution gives the president the authority to put an official on the job without waiting for Senate confirmation when Congress is in recess. The official then can serve until the end of the current Congress, in this case January 2007.

Flory was first nominated to the post June 1, 2004, but the nomination was blocked by Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a dispute over the release of intelligence-related documents that Levin sought from Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of Defense for policy.

Flory has been the principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs. His new assignment moves him up to assistant secretary of Defense for international security policy.