The advantages of being in the last two years of a president's term

So much has been written about how presidents become lame ducks in their second terms and everything goes downhill for them. And President Bush seemed the lamest of lame ducks because he lost control of Congress for his last two years. But there is one remaining advantage. He can make recess appointments. Such appointments only last until the end of this Congress's term which would be in December of 2008. But since that is just about the end of Bush's term, there really is little difference between how long someone approved by the Senate and someone recess appointed would serve. So he has gone ahead and given recess appointments to three officials that the Senate was blocking. Needless to say, they're all ready to tsk-tsk his move. Apparently, it's fine for them to block his nominations for ideological or purely self-centered reasons, as in Senator Kerry's blocking of Sam Fox to be Ambassador to Belgium because he had donated to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth but he shouldn't dare defy them by exercising his perogative for recess appointments. They exercised their perogatives and now he's exercised his. They'll just have to deal with it. And Senator Kerry has been revealed once again for the balloon full of vindictive, yet self-satisfied hot air that he has always been.