RECESS APPOINTMENTS

Bill Quick links that President Bush has made eleven recess appointments with Congress on spring break, bypassing the confirmation process. As he correctly notes:

Watch the same people who didn’t utter a peep when BJ Clinton did this sort of thing scream bloody murder about Bush doing it now.

Of course, the people who screamed about Clinton then won’t have a word to say about Bush now, either.

The recess appointment power is one whose purpose has long since passed into history. In the early days of the Republic, Congress adjourned for months at a time. It was inordinately hot in DC in the summertime in the days before AC, for one. For another, the Federal government didn’t have all that much to do. Of course, all that’s changed now.

Now, granted, the Senate is abusing its constitutional authority by filibustering nominees and otherwise stalling the process. So, in that sense, it balances out. But it doesn’t make it right.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. PoliBlogger says:

    I concur. If it is wrong when one party does it, it is always wrong. This is the kind of thing that fuels the attitude that all politicians are hypocrites.