Recess Turns Ugly ...

[Amskeptic]

... over in the Capitol Kindergarten.

See, the Republican leadership had decided that the duly voted-upon Consumer Protection Bureau had to be de-fanged by holding up the appointment of its director, originally the hoped-for Elizabeth Warren, now a certain Richard Cordray, the ex-attorney general of Ohio, who has been vetted and determined to be more than competent. The agency has been in limbo since August.

Obama appointed Cordray during this Congressional holiday lull that has been punctured by "pro forma sessions", (busywork Senate business) every three days to prevent a recess appointment. Obama and his coterie of lawyers decided that the pro forma business was just a bunch of bullshit, so he declared this a true recess appointment.

Now the Republicans are quite "angry" by this, and have resorted to declaring that Obama "arrogantly circumvented the American people" for this 32nd recess appointment of his Presidency, calling it a "tyrannical abuse of power", oh my.
Nobody mentions the <record> number (171) of recess appointments by his predecessor in all of this hollering about Obama's imperialist socialist presidency. (*record held by Reagan at 243-ed)

And the kindergarten scuffle goes on, and the teachers will blame both of the little delinquents for being unruly, but we all were there on the playground, weren't we? We remember the instigators.
Colin
(edited 01-06-12)

[ruckman101]

I know just what you're saying, why I rememb........ooh, ...must look, ....Sarah Palin's got a new hair style!! She's so tall, c'mon rip her to shreds.

You were saying?

How dare the President circumvent gridlock in the name of the people at the expense of corporations! The puffed up buffoonery proffered as indignation astounds me. Let me pause and pick my jaw up off the ground. Agape in astonishment.

Blatant. Apparently all time is the latest twitter.


neal

[pj]

Well, Colin and Neal hopefully somewhere down the road when some president neither of you care for does the same thing, you'll have the same understanding frame of mind, that you have now.

Of course Colin you forgot to mention how Mr. Obama while in the US Senate railed against this very process, making him at best now look slightly ingenuous.

This time next year the U-haul will be in front of 1600 Penn. Ave, and we will be addressing him as former President Obama, I guess we can hold on for a year.

[Amskeptic]

.
Of course Colin you forgot to mention how Mr. Obama while in the US Senate railed against this very process, making him at best now look slightly ingenuous.

Why would I have mentioned it? A senator does not have the opportunity to make recess appointments and think that they are short-circuits to the usual process of confirmation. I would expect every senator to feel circumvented.

As President, Obama actually has used the recess appointment less than any other president in recent history. As Senator, he did not like them, as President, he appears to still not like them.

With that obstructionist bunch in Congress holding up more confirmations than any other in the history of this country, I say Obama has been the model of rectitude. After yesterday’s appointment, President Obama will have made a total of 29 recess appointments. By comparison, George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments; Bill Clinton made 139 recess appointments; George H.W. Bush made 77 recess appointments; and Ronald Reagan made 243. When you divide these numbers by the number of years each man spent in the White House, Obama is far and away the least likely president to invoke this power. ANSWER THAT, PJ!

When Obama was a senator, Bush was running amok with crony appointments of startling incompetence, like nominating Harriet Miers for Supreme Court Justice and Michael "Brownie", the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association from 1989-2001, for head of FEMA?? The Senate was well-concerned with the unusual number of recess appointments that Bush was cramming in (more than any other President in history).

By the time the 112th Congress was in session, their motives were blatant and shameful obstruction NOT concern for the quality of hires:

from http://www.senate.gov/CRS

On May 25, 2011, in a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, 20 Senators urged him “to refuse to pass any resolution to allow the Senate to recess or adjourn for more than three days for the remainder of the president’s term.”

The letter stated that “President Obama has used recess appointments to fill powerful positions with individuals whose views are so outside the
mainstream that they cannot be confirmed by the Senate of the United States,” and in a June 15, 2011 letter to the Speaker of the House, the House majority leader, and the House majority whip, 78 Representatives requested that “all appropriate measures be taken to prevent any and all recess appointments by preventing the Senate from officially recessing for the
remainder of the 112th Congress.”

This is bullshit, Phil. Pure and simple.
Colin

[ruckman101]

I guess you missed that statistic of recess appointments (171) the shrub made that Colin cited. A record number according to Colin, actually, Reagan had the record of 30 a year during his terms, Bush managed 19 a year during his one term, and Clinton resorted to a 17 year average during his terms, the shrub kicked it up to 21 a year for his terms, and Obama has a modest 10 a year over three years, skewed up by yesterday's four appointments. All numbers have been rounded down.

Time honored tactic, however, only Obama has had to deal with pittance token senate business that kept the Senate technically officially not on recess despite the fact no one is there. Obama finally found a pair, true, they may have just dropped, but maybe his voice will deepen and those things will start being swung around a bit with a new found swagger.

Obama has shown remarkable restraint in an effort to work with those legislators whose sole purpose, people and health of the nation be damned, is to defeat Obama.

I'll keep that context in mind pj, if our next President in five years isn't someone I voted for.


neal

[ruckman101]

Wow, Colin's memory is much better than mine.


neal

[Velokid1]

This is a little off-topic, I guess, but speaking of Obama's restraint...

It really is remarkable. He's been up against the most resistant, angry Republican Party ever. They haven't allowed him to accomplish much at all. Some of the things they've log-jammed have been things they disagree with on principle, but many of them have been things that would benefit the country as a whole but the Republicans are determined to not allow Obama to get credit for accomplishing.

At any rate, if ever a guy had cause to blow up and act like an ape, it would be Obama over the past couple years. Hell, it only took Newt Gingrich a few months of campaigning before he threw a tantrum in front of the press this week in Iowa.

[ruckman101]

"[T]he Senate cannot constitutionally thwart the president's recess appointment power through pro forma sessions. [...] In a 1905 report that the Senate still considers authoritative, the Senate Judiciary Committee recognized that a 'Recess of the Senate' occurs whenever the Senate is not sitting for the discharge of its functions and when it cannot 'participate as a body in making appointments.' The committee cautioned that a 'recess' means 'something actual, not something fictitious.'"
--Steven G. Bradbury, Head of Office of Legal Counsel in the DoJ from 2005-2009

The OLC's job is to provide legal guidance to the Attorney General and the President. All executive orders are run through the OLC for legality.


Technically not technically in session.
neal