Last week’s recess appointments seem to have struck a chord among Senate Dems. Sure, they’re used to the president’s offensive behavior, but these appointments, especially Swiftboat Financier Sam Fox’s, were just so brazen. Dems seem to have gone from frustrated to insulted.
The problem, of course, is that the Dems don’t appear to have a lot of options. The Constitution (kinda sorta) empowers the president to make these appointments. The last time senators challenged the practice in court, the judiciary booted the case, citing a separation of powers (the federal courts didn’t want to intervene in a procedural matter between the other two branches of government).
Dems, to their credit, aren’t giving up easy. ($)
Angry Senate Democrats are mulling a two-pronged strategy to retaliate against the Bush administration for appointing three controversial figures to key executive branch posts during last week’s recess, including possibly shortening the August recess to no more than 10 days and blocking all future White House nominations.
The Democrats’ countermove is still in discussions, but sources say top Senate leaders already have begun eyeing their options and will meet to vet their next move once lawmakers are back in full swing today. Either way, the Democrats are looking to get the upper hand against the Bush administration after it made the appointments while Senators were on their spring break last week.
“The administration hasn’t heard the last of this,” said a senior Democratic Senate aide. “What they did — in particular with Sam Fox’s nomination last week — is absolutely outrageous. They managed to make a whole bunch of Members mad and it doesn’t bode well for future attempts to move nominations through the Senate.”
A variety of ideas are on the table, none of which include amending the Constitution.
Option #1 — keeping the Senate in session a lot more.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his fellow top Democrats are considering revamping the Senate calendar, which Reid already attempted to structure to avoid Bush recess installments earlier this year. Under past practice, the White House would refrain from making recess appointments unless the Senate was on break for more than 10 days, but Bush sidestepped that tradition with the naming of Fox as ambassador to Belgium, as well as two other controversial nominees.
As it stands now, the Senate has scheduled one-week recesses with the exception of the August break, which is currently slated to last a month. By shortening it to 10 days — and then having the Senate meet in a pro forma or non-voting capacity during the remaining two-week period — Senate Democrats may not avoid recess appointments altogether, but they would make it more difficult for Bush.
Option #2 — bringing the entire nomination/confirmation process to a halt.
So far this year, the administration has sent some 197 nominations to the Senate for consideration ranging from high-profile Cabinet and judicial posts to and low-level, largely ceremonial, slots.
“Democrats are looking for any excuse — no matter how minor — to shut down the presidential appointment process,” said a senior Republican Senate aide. “No one should be shocked.”
If Democrats do plan to hold up Bush’s nominees, particularly his judicial picks, that would represent a shift from the first three months of the 110th Congress, as the Democratically controlled Senate so far has moved more than a dozen White House court picks with relative ease.
We’ll see what happens. It’s certainly likely that last week’s stunt will fade in Dems’ memories and the anger will dissipate, but I hope not. Bush expects to get away with this nonsense because he’s never paid a political price. It’ll be to the Dems’ advantage for the next two years if they draw more lines in the sand.