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Wimp in the White House

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Now that the Senate has graciously decided to approve less than half of the nominees that it had held up, President Obama has announced that he will make no recess appointments in the Senate’s upcoming recess.

The NLRB still has no quorum.  There are still several judges held up.  The Senate did not even move on 3 key Defense Department appointments blocked by Richard Shelby (R-Romper Room).

At the same time in his administration, George W. Bush made several recess appointments, while constantly attacking pliant Senate Democrats for obstructionism and riling up the GOP base: he particularly relished appointing management lawyers to the NLRB.  Obama seems to relish telling his most devoted supporters to STFU.

Rahm Emanuel cut his teeth working for Bill Clinton when he faced a Republican Congress.  Obviously, Rahm seems to like it that way.  But the fish rots from the head.

Comments

  1. Looks like our guy wimped out.

    You would like to think that he would gain something in return, but the GOP will never give a sucker an even break.

  3. IIRC, at this point Bush had at least nominated candidates for most of the empty slots. I think what you're seeing in Obama is that the Presidency is not a starter position; Perhaps in 2012 you can nominate somebody with executive branch experience, if Obama still hasn't gotten up to speed.

  5. Brett Bellmore says:

    "IIRC, at this point Bush had at least nominated candidates for most of the empty slots. I think what you’re seeing in Obama is that the Presidency is not a starter position; Perhaps in 2012 you can nominate somebody with executive branch experience, if Obama still hasn’t gotten up to speed."

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    A frikkin' republican talks about the qualifications of a president?

  7. Laugh if you like, it's your guy who appointed a tax cheat to be Treasury secretary. He's bad enough at vetting he NEEDS the Senate looking at his nominees. Every guy he recess appoints will be a ticking time bomb, waiting for some embarassing revelation. And he won't have anybody to share the blame with.

  8. … and the Senate has been SOO active on vetting Obama's candidates. Sure, when they finally stop 'holding' them up, they approve them nearly unanimously. So the 'hold' is about vetting, not … um … say … what could it be? Blackmail?!

  9. Brett, I understand that facts an' history an' stuff ain't you bowl o' possbum stew, but what I was referring to is that GOP administration in power from 2001-2009. Remember them?

  10. Yeah, I remember them, with some distaste. For all that I thought Bush was a lousy President, (My usual description of Bush was, "I voted for the lesser of two evils, and he turned out to be not so nearly lesser as I'd anticipated.") he had the mechanics of doing the job down, he was just lousy on a policy basis. Obama is lousy on a policy basis, (Obviously we're going to disagree about that.) AND doesn't know how to do the mechanics of the job, either. Why, you'd almost think he had no experience as an executive before. Oh, wait…

  11. But, yeah, if you think I'm being stupid about that, go ahead, nominate more Jr. Senators who've never head executive branch positions before. If you've got to have somebody with really bad policies in the White house, I suppose I'd prefer that they be incompetent at pursuing those policies. Obama could have been a real terror if he weren't so clueless about how to be an executive.

  12. Brett, re: Bush: "….he had the mechanics of doing the job down, …"

    Wrong again; Bush basically coasted through his term, on 9/11 and the fact that his policies were to help the elites, so they pushed hard for those policies. As we've seen, Cheney did far more running of things than Bush did, even when Bush gave a flying f*ck.

  14. "Every guy he recess appoints will be a ticking time bomb, waiting for some embarassing revelation. . . he had the mechanics of doing the job down"

    Bernie Kerik, anyone?

    Masterful vetting, that.

  16. ". . . ominate more Jr. Senators who’ve never head executive branch positions before."

    From someone who knows absolutely nothing about how weak and powerless the Texas governorship is and what a poor qualifier it is when it comes to executive experience.

    And btw, how about William Mercer?

  17. Brett Bellmore says: "Laugh if you like, it’s your guy who appointed a tax cheat to be Treasury secretary."

    Yes, Brett, it's a good thing that the Senate has such oversight, otherwise Tim Geithner might be Treasury Secretary today.

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