If you don't read Investor's Business Daily, you probably missed this. It is reprinted from IBD's Issues and Insights page Monday August 23.
Barack Obama hit a new low in using a recess appointment to name Maria del Carmen Aponte as U.S. envoy to El Salvador. Dismissing three congressional holds on Aponte's confirmation, Obama used his vacation to slip Aponte through without a vote in Congress which is in recess.
Aponte's past is one big red flag. From 1982 to 1994 she lived with a man who worked closely with the Cuban Mission to the U.N. and was allegedly a spy. The FBI spotted this problem in Aponte's resume in 1994 when she made conflicting statements to investigators. As a result, she withdrew her nomination as ambassador to the Dominican Republic during the Clinton administration.
One thing is likely: Obama wants her there for something important, or he wouldn't have rammed through the appointment. With El Salvador the second-biggest source of illegal immigrants to the U.S., she may be there to help facilitate Obama's amnesty plans and create a Democrat voting bloc there. If so, U.S. voters won't know because she slipped scrutiny.
As with Van Jones, Obama shoved her through on a recess appointment because she probably wouldn't have been confirmed otherwise. That's how an activist with questionable ties became U.S. envoy to a key nation.
Citizens Against Government Waste
www.cagw.org