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Obama braces for fight with GOP in new nominations
The Comptroller of the Currency, run by an acting chief, has kept up its regular examinations of banks. The Federal Trade Commission, operating with four board members instead of five, has had no difficulties. “This agency is not a partisan combat agency,” said spokesman Peter Kaplan. “Almost all the votes are unanimous and consensus driven.”
Republicans have pledged retaliation for Obama’s recess appointments, but haven’t indicated what it might be.
“The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama’s blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush Administration refused to make,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is his party’s top member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Grassley wouldn’t go further, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky hasn’t tipped his hand after charging that Obama had “arrogantly circumvented the American people.” Before the Senate left for its break in December, McConnell blocked Senate approval of more than 60 pending nominees because Obama wouldn’t commit to making no recess appointments.
Republicans have to consider whether their actions, especially any decision to block all nominees, might play into Obama’s hands.
Obama has adopted an election-year theme of “we can’t wait” for Republicans to act on nominations and major proposals like his latest jobs plan. Republicans have to consider how their argument that the president is violating Constitutional checks and balances plays against Obama’s stump speeches characterizing them as obstructionists.
Senate historian Donald Ritchie said the minority party has retaliated in the past for recess appointments by holding up specific nominees. “I’m not aware of any situations where no nominations were accepted,” he said. The normal practice is for the two party leaders to negotiate which nominations get votes.
During the break, Republicans forced the Senate to convene for usually less than a minute once every few days to argue that there was no recess and that Obama therefore couldn’t bypass the Senate’s authority to confirm top officials. The administration said this was a sham, and has released a Justice Department opinion backing up the legality of the appointments.
