While most of the White House and Senate had left Washington for the Christmas holiday, Democratic Senator Jim Webb stayed around for barely a minute. In the chamber for just 57 seconds, he called to order a Senate session and then closed it within 11 seconds. Senate majority leader Democrat Harry Reid claimed that "pro forma" sessions similar to this one will be held throughout the month of January.
The Democratic led Senate did this in order to stop President Bush from making any recess appointments. In the Constitution, the president is given the right to fill all top governmental positions for one year without consent from the Senate while Congress is in recess.
Earlier, talks between the President and the Democratic senators were held in order to avoid these short sessions. The senate said that the President could make as many appointments as he wished as long as he did not appoint Steven Bradbury as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel. However, the talks proved ineffective as Bush did not take the Democrats´offer and Reid did not approve Bush´s appointment of Bradbury.
What do you think? Do you feel that Bush did the right thing by not accepting the Democrats´ proposal? Are the Democrats doing the right thing by remaining in session and holding these short meetings?
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4 comments:
I think that these meetings are just one plan of action that the Democrats are using to take back their power. It is sort of funny, the games that politicians play to keep power. the Democrats dont want this appointment to happen and so they are taking--seemingly legal--action to prevent it. it seems that they are stretching the bounds of the Constitution to acheive their power play.
That 11 second meeting must be some kind of record.
While I don't know the exact laws behind all of this, isn't being able to reject nominations one of the checks by the Senate on the President? It seems like this just lets the Senate keep some of their power, while something like getting a nomination by without consent feels more like slipping through a loophole.
i'd' agree with keith on this, I feel like the Presidents power to make appointments without senate approval during a recess is kind of sneaking around our checks and balances systems so the democrats are really just keeping their check on the President with holding these short meetings. It seems like this action is looking out for the USA instead of just doing what ever the President wants.
I agree with Kelsey that these 11 second meetings are just a way for the Democrats to take back their power...it's kind of interesting how this is related to our recent study of the imperial presidency, because Bush (in my opinion) has been enjoying an imperial presidency, but now that the Democrats control Congress they are starting to restrict his power and they're keeping check on his executive position.
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