Justice Department Covers Obama’s Power Grab
by Big Dog on Jan 13, 2012 at 15:15 Political
The Justice Department, headed by corrupt Attorney General Eric Holder, has weighed in on King Barack Hussein’s “recess” appointments and has found, surprise, that Obama did nothing wrong.
Justice noted that pro forma sessions are not breaks of the longer recess and that the Senate is not able to receive communications from the White House or to advise and consent. Perhaps this would be true if the Senate was in recess (and only courts can determine it) but the Senate was never gaveled into recess. It has adjourned every three days since December and I can find nothing in the Congressional Record indicating the Senate body made a motion to recess.
So the Senate was never in a recess. This was done, as indicated on the Senate website, so that one body does not have to ask the other for permission to adjourn (longer than three days requires consent of the other chamber).
It happened under Harry Reid so contrary to the referenced article, the Republicans did not do this, they carried it on. It is likely Reid did this to keep from having to ask the House for permission to adjourn because they were in a heated debate on the tax cut plan and the House might have said no.
In any event, the pro forma scheme has been used by both parties to block recess appointments and Ted Kennedy wrote an amicus for a court over a Bush recess appointment. In that brief, Kennedy made the argument that everything Obama has now done is wrong. He was arguing against a Bush appointment but the argument would clearly apply to what Obama is doing.
It is no surprise that the Fast and Furious Justice Department sided with Obama. They support his power grab and their actions in the past show they have little regard for the Constitution or the rule of law.
Justice argues that the pro forma sessions do not constitute a functioning body that can render advise and consent on nominees. First of all, the Senate is capable of taking in communications and second of all the names in question had already been submitted. In other words, Obama would not have needed to submit their names for consideration because they were already submitted for consideration and had not been acted upon. One was in process and the other two were so new that the Senate had not even had the chance to act on on them.
Second, even if the entire Senate was in session the nominations would not have been acted upon immediately. It is likely, given past experience, that the Senate would take quite some time deliberating on the nominations.
So no matter how it is sliced, Obama made a power grab and did an end run around Congress. That end run will probably run afoul of the Constitution and embarrass the inexperienced power grabber in chief.
All these people need to be run out of town come November.
We need to remove King Hussein from his throne.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: justice department, lies, Obama, power grab, recess appointments