WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rejecting criticism, President Bush on Friday bypassed Congress and gave top positions to two conservatives, Otto Reich, a veteran of the 1980s Iran-Contra controversy, and Eugene Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Bush gave so-called recess appointments to Reich to be the State Department's assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, the top Latin American post, and to Scalia to be solicitor general at the Labor Department, the No. 3 job there.
Reich's appointment had been blocked since his nomination in March by Democrats who object to his staunch anti-Castro views and his role in the Reagan administration's controversial strategy against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in the 1980s.
Scalia's nomination had languished since April.
By acting while the Senate is in recess, Bush guaranteed that Reich and Scalia will hold their jobs for at least a year -- until Congress recesses again at the end of the year.
"Both positions have been vacant for close to a year and the Senate, by failing to act on either nomination, left the president with no other option but to exercise his constitutional right to appoint them both," a senior administration official said.
The nomination of Scalia, a labor lawyer, riled organized labor and many Democrats because of his writings that criticize workplace safety regulations, especially those dealing with ergonomics, which he once called "quackery."
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said the appointments were regrettable. He said Scalia would have eventually gotten a full vote in the Senate but that his "record of hostility toward worker protections would have made his confirmation unlikely."
Of Reich, Daschle said senators on both sides of the aisle had raised questions about him "based on his record, both in government and in the private sector."
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy said he regretted the Scalia appointment: "His record and experience do not reflect a commitment to the rights of American workers."
Labor was also outraged. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called it "a slap in the face of American workers."
"It has been clear since early fall that Eugene Scalia could not be confirmed by the Senate. The recess appointment today simply underscores the Bush administration's lockstep allegiance to the corporate agenda of blocking needed worker protections," he said.
Republicans have claimed Democrats were punishing Scalia for his father's role in the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision a year ago that ended the election dispute in Florida and gave the presidency to Bush over Democrat Al Gore.
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao vowed Scalia would ensure that U.S. labor laws are "forcefully and fairly enforced."
POSITIONS VACANT
Reich, a Cuban-American, never received a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Scalia's nomination was approved in October by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee but the Democratic-controlled chamber never brought him to a vote.
Reich's nomination was opposed by Democratic senators led by Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, who was quoted late last year as saying it was "not going anywhere."
North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms said Reich's appointment will be welcomed by "all fair-minded Americans."
"Had Otto Reich been allowed a hearing by even two or three Foreign Relations Committee senators, his nomination would have been promptly and long ago approved by the Senate," he said.
Reich's critics say he is unsuited for the job because he headed the now defunct Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean between 1983 and 1986.
The office was accused of engaging in illegal and covert propaganda activities to promote the Reagan administration's policies in support of the Contras in their U.S.-funded war against Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista government.
The war produced the biggest political scandal of the Reagan presidency, which was found to have engaged in a secret deal with Iran to trade arms for money that was funneled to the Contras in violation of U.S. law.
Former President Bill Clinton used recess appointments to install some of his most controversial nominees. Bush's father made 77 recess appointments during his four years in office.
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