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“Breaking: Obama also set to make recess appointments to the NLRB”

Precedent? Tradition? Collegiality? Procedure? Posh.

It’s good to be the King.

But I repeat myself.

(h/t geoffB)

****
update: I should note that in an update to his Plum Line post, Greg Sargent points to a pre-buttal that notes how 3 GOP Presidents have also made recess appointments to the NLRB in the past, including Ronald Reagan. Which isn’t really the point, I don’t think. What we need to know is, did they do so after ignoring (or, if you wish, deciding they weren’t bound by) a procedural maneuver in the Senate specifically intended to to assert Senate authority over such appointments? That is, did they make actual recess appointments, or just rule as Obama has that what is not recess is, for his purposes, recess — the guiding authority for such an argument being “because I say so”?

I don’t know the answer to that offhand, I admit. But it isn’t mentioned in the pre-buttal, so I suspect the circumstances were a bit different, and that the pre-buttal might therefore be a bit disingenuous.

35 Replies to ““Breaking: Obama also set to make recess appointments to the NLRB””

  1. I guess Droit du seigneur will be next on his list.

  2. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Where you been? He’s been exercising that privilege with vengeance.

    Metaphorically speaking

  3. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You know what this means, right?

    LINE ITEM VETO BABY!!!!

  4. sdferr says:

    He’s apparently already taken up LINE ITEM SPENDO.

  5. geoffb says:

    At The Corner.

    As far as I am aware — and I could be wrong — the names were never put to a cloture vote of any sort. If that is the case, then the president has bull-rushed the Senate.
    […]
    [R]aises the specter of the president someday making an appointment during a bathroom break

  6. happyfeet says:

    it’s hard to believe this is the same guy what shoved a job-killing socialist health care scheme up America’s ass using reconciliation

  7. geoffb says:

    did they do so after ignoring (or, if you wish, deciding they weren’t bound by) a procedural maneuver in the Senate specifically intended to to assert Senate authority over such appointments?

    Jonah Goldberg asked that question on Twitter and no one has found one yet.

  8. Ernst Schreiber says:

    It was inevitable really, this corruption and decline of the Roman republic type contempt for custom and tradition. After all, we’ve already seen lawfare waged against politicians, as well as extra-constitutional shenanigans like deeming legislation passed, or budgeting by continuing resolution instead of by passing a budget act. And God knows, we’ve had bread and circuses for generations now.

    The Visigoths can’t sack the city fast enough.

  9. Ernst Schreiber says:

    it’s hard to believe this is the same guy what shoved a job-killing socialist health care scheme up America’s ass using reconciliation

    That was the triumvir Crassus-Pelosi. Baracky the Great was too busy pomping and circumstancing to be bothered with piddly shit like that.

  10. Squid says:

    This just reinforces the urgency of installing a responsible Congress next year. If His Imperial Majesty wants to build His little empire and install His functionaries to oversee every little bit of everybody’s lives, then He should be met by a loud contingent of those who write the laws He supposedly enforces.

    We need a Senate that demands respect from the President; one that merits respect from the rest of us would be really nice, too. We need a House that says, “Y’know, if you’re going to be a dick about it, here’s a 2013 budget that’s exactly half the size of the 2012 budget. Have fun downsizing!” We need a supercommittee that decides that the next debt ceiling raise comes with an automatic $1 billion/day deflator, and if anyone from the White House or the Treasury says ONE FUCKING WORD in complaint, the deflator goes to $20 billion/week.

    Let’s get this Overton Window moving already. I’m sick of all this pussyfooting around.

  11. bh says:

    Okay, I’m writing in Squid rather than Rollie Fingers.

  12. Crawford says:

    If His Imperial Majesty wants to build His little empire and install His functionaries to oversee every little bit of everybody’s lives, then He should be met by a loud contingent of those who write the laws He supposedly enforces.

    Lord High Emperor Obama the First doesn’t give a rat’s ass what laws are written. What are laws to Him?

    We need a House that says, “Y’know, if you’re going to be a dick about it, here’s a 2013 budget that’s exactly half the size of the 2012 budget.

    He’s already said he doesn’t care what Congress says about what he can spend. They sent him a budget with some of his “czars” explicitly zeroed out. He said “don’t care” and those positions remain in-place and FUNDED. Illegally.

    But, hey, can’t impeach the Tyrant. That wouldn’t look good in an election year. It would be playing right into his hands to send him to the gallows for Treason.

  13. newrouter says:

    gawd i hate illinois commies

  14. Squid says:

    Crawford, when my folks sent me money at college, it was with the understanding that the money go toward books and tuition and rent, not beer and pizza. When it became obvious that the money was going to beer and pizza regardless of their wishes, I got no more money from home.

    Obama can complain about strictures and ignore them to his heart’s content. It won’t matter if he doesn’t have any money. Besides which, it will encourage Congress to stop with the humongous omnibus spending bills, and return to specific spending bills, which would be a huge improvement in my book.

  15. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I think Crawford may have just explained why we’ve been running the country off of continuing resolutions for three years now.

  16. mojo says:

    The Volokh folks seem to think that the law’s language specifically prevents this, by requiring “confirmation by the Senate”…

  17. There you go again imagining that laws have some kind of magical binding meaning.

  18. newrouter says:

    rick moran is still uncertain about the goodman’s intentions

    I’m not exactly sure how the White House can do this – except they seem to get away with stuff like this on a regular basis simply by declaring themselves above the rules.

    Is this one more indication of the dysfunction of our politics? Or is it emblematic of an administration who flouts the law in order to achieve its goals?

    link

  19. I think Obama’s playing a longer game here, hell’s bells he’s practically picking a fight with Congress so he can blame Republican intransigence for his not being able to fuck up, I mean, fix the economy.

    Everything, and I mean everything is about winning the next election right now. Nothing else matters.

    Oh, I was referring to Obama, though perhaps punching back twice as hard means it should apply to me as well.

    Going to be a shame to have to watch the Obama’s have to curtail their lifestyle to a measly $4-5M a year once he’s out of office.

  20. Crawford says:

    Charles, I think his “longer game” involves simply ruling without restraint.

  21. sdferr says:

    A functional and self-respecting Congress could have impeachment fully and properly complete in about a fortnight, I’d think. This Congress won’t even begin.

  22. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Is this one more indication of the dysfunction of our politics? Or is it emblematic of an administration who flouts the law in order to achieve its goals?

    Yes.

  23. Ernst Schreiber says:

    This isn’t that fucking hard people:

    The slow-motion coup is gathering speed.

  24. JD says:

    Moran is a moron.

  25. mojo says:

    Says here he has “leave to move without let or hindrance against all heretics…”

    Oh, wait. That was the Spanish Inquisition.

  26. newrouter says:

    The latest battle will be coming any day now, as the EPA has said it will issue its Utility NSPS (New Source Performance Standards) sometime in January. Any new utility plants will have to meet a new set of environmental standards – standards that conveniently work out great for natural gas but are prohibitively expensive for coal plants, even new ones, to meet.

    In capitalist terms, this means the United States can say goodbye to the construction of any new coal plants on its soil.

    link

  27. Jeff G. says:

    Rick Moran is slowly coming to the conclusion that he might have to become a Visigoth, too. If he wants to make sense of things.

    Could have saved himself the whole voyage of self-discovery had he just listened to me, but then, how would he learn?

  28. Pablo says:

    nr@26

    What I’ve said is that we would put a cap-and-trade system in place that is more — that is as aggressive if not more aggressive than anybody else’s out there, so if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

    Can’t pass Cap and Trade? Who needs Congress, anyway.

  29. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Finally, a campaign promise he intends to keep!

  30. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Rick Moran is just as likely to decide that the dysfunction in our system is the result of the Republicans refusal to play their natural role of mostly impotent semi-permanent minority, and thus conclude that the sooner we get rid of all the teabaggers, the faster everything will get back to normal, as he is to discover his own barbaric yawp.

    Probably more so.

  31. JD says:

    Recess is what Obambi decides it is.

  32. SDN says:

    Heck, Jeff, Ben Franklin described Moran perfectly 250 years ago:”Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn at no Other.”

  33. SDN says:

    At some point, we’re going to have to convince the underlings that actually carrying out Bambi’s instructions is a Bad Idea. Outlaw style.

  34. alppuccino says:

    The 24 Formula is as follows:

    Jack Bauer needs a schematic sent to his smartphone so that he can infiltrate and kill. The acting head of CTU is a total toolbag that nobody likes and is always buckling or stalling or blocking or cramping Bauer’s style.

    That’s the guy who, in the end, crashes the plane with the dirty bomb into the middle of the ocean, sacrificing his own life to save the country.

    Someone needs to crash the plane with the dirty Obomb.

Comments are closed.