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The Republican Power Binge Strikes Again
Posted by: Linda Carbonell on December 19, 2011. 
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
When the Senate refuses to appoint or vote on the appointment of a nominee for the Executive branch, it is customary for the President to use his executive powers to temporarily appoint someone while the Congress is on recess. This is a power granted to the President by Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which states: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.” Now, Mitch McConnell wants to strip our President of a Constitutional power without amending the Constitution.
The Senate Republicans have used the filibuster (which is not a Constitutional power, but a rule made by the Senate) to block dozens of President Obama’s appointments, from piddly little middle management posts to Federal judgeships. They are presently blocking the appointment of a director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They don’t like the CFPB, and this is their main method of preventing any protections being created for consumers at the cost of the banks. The Republicans have manipulated things, getting John Boehner to not declare Congress in recess, to prevent recess appointments.
McConnell has made the President an offer he thinks the President can’t refuse – the Senate will vote on his appointments if he abdicates his Constitutional power to make recess appointments. Otherwise, they will just keep filibustering and manipulating and keeping our judiciary in crisis and prevent ambassadors being appointed and bureaucrats taking their places in the flow chart.
There is a point in the scheme of politics and governance where opposition crosses over into treason. Trying to overthrow a portion of our Constitution without following our established laws for amending that hallowed document is well beyond that point. We have had to live with the Constitutional dictatorship of the Bush/Cheney administration, the rants of Republican candidates that they would arrest judges and impose laws without the legislature, and now we are witnessing an attempt to negate a portion of our Constitution by fiat. Just how far do these people have to go before Americans realize they are dealing with a movement to end our republic as we know it?
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You are here: Home » Commentary » The Republican Power Binge Strikes Again
The Republican Power Binge Strikes Again
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
When the Senate refuses to appoint or vote on the appointment of a nominee for the Executive branch, it is customary for the President to use his executive powers to temporarily appoint someone while the Congress is on recess. This is a power granted to the President by Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which states: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.” Now, Mitch McConnell wants to strip our President of a Constitutional power without amending the Constitution.
The Senate Republicans have used the filibuster (which is not a Constitutional power, but a rule made by the Senate) to block dozens of President Obama’s appointments, from piddly little middle management posts to Federal judgeships. They are presently blocking the appointment of a director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They don’t like the CFPB, and this is their main method of preventing any protections being created for consumers at the cost of the banks. The Republicans have manipulated things, getting John Boehner to not declare Congress in recess, to prevent recess appointments.
McConnell has made the President an offer he thinks the President can’t refuse – the Senate will vote on his appointments if he abdicates his Constitutional power to make recess appointments. Otherwise, they will just keep filibustering and manipulating and keeping our judiciary in crisis and prevent ambassadors being appointed and bureaucrats taking their places in the flow chart.
There is a point in the scheme of politics and governance where opposition crosses over into treason. Trying to overthrow a portion of our Constitution without following our established laws for amending that hallowed document is well beyond that point. We have had to live with the Constitutional dictatorship of the Bush/Cheney administration, the rants of Republican candidates that they would arrest judges and impose laws without the legislature, and now we are witnessing an attempt to negate a portion of our Constitution by fiat. Just how far do these people have to go before Americans realize they are dealing with a movement to end our republic as we know it?
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