ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman has just vacated the most thankless job in the Bush administration. In picking a successor the president should under no circumstances use a recess appointment to dodge an overdue examination by the Senate of his environmental policies. A report in The Wall Street Journal last Friday indicated that the president might in fact wait until the Senate recesses next month to appoint Idaho's Governor Dirk Kempthorne. If George Bush took this course, there would be nothing to force the Republican-led Senate, after its recess, to hold a confirmation hearing.