appointees

Way to go Mr. President:

Faced with an unprecedented level of obstruction in the Senate, the President announced his intention to recess appoint fifteen nominees to fill critical administration posts. While the President respects the critical role the Senate plays in the appointment process, he was no longer willing to let another month go by with key economic positions unfilled, especially at a time when our country is recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Many of these fifteen individuals have enjoyed broad bipartisan support, but have found their confirmation votes delayed for reasons that have nothing to do with their qualifications. It has more to do with an obstruction-at-all-costs mentality that we’ve been faced with since the President came into office. Because of political posturing, these fifteen appointees have waited an average of 214 days for Senate confirmation.

And I guarantee there will be wingnuts this week calling this unconstitutional, despite Bush doing the exact same thing and the Constitution allowing it.

There is a ton of outrage going on over the Justice Department’s brief filed in a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, and that outrage is rightfully so. But there is something lacking in the discussion that has emerged – the fact that there are still a lot of unfilled positions in the DOJ.

One example is Tony Perez. He was appointed in April to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights division, yet there hasn’t even been a hearing yet to confirm him. Tony West, who heads the civil division and signed off on the brief was just confirmed on April 20th. With all these vacancies still at the DOJ that means the people who have managed to get through the confirmation are picking up the extra slack.

That’s the reason there are still so many Bush hold appointees at DOJ. Its not the Obama wants them – its that Obama is stuck with them.

Until the Senate Judiciary Committee gets going, and Republicans stop blocking, we can expect to see poor decisions by the DOJ. My guess is that neither President Obama nor AG Holder had any idea that brief was being filed, let alone that the case may have even existed.

Its not making excuses for the piss-poor brief, but rather a statement of the facts. I don’t think we can even fully call it Obama’s DOJ and may not be able to until 2010.

In 1998 Bill Clinton made an appointment to the United Nations. He appointed Richard Holbrooke to be the diplomatic voice of the United States. For 14 months the Republicans in Senate continued to block Holbrooke’s appointment in what became “partisan bickering”

Holbrooke was offered the recess appointment during this time, however he declined it. Holbrooke felt that going to the UN without the backing of our Senate would jeopardize his credibility and authority. He also did not like the message it would send to the other 160 nations represented by the UN.

Here we are a few short years later, and President Bush jumps on the chance to give John Bolton the recess appointment to the same seat. Even though plenty of testimony has been given to prove John Bolton is not a man to be our diplomatic voice, President Bush continued to blame it on partisan bickering. Sadly enough, Democrats aren’t the only ones who question Bolton’s qualifications for this job. Republicans like George Voinovich also have voiced concern.

We are at a time when we need to improve our standing in the world and the President of this country feels that will be best done with a bully sitting at the UN. He is sure to alienate us from the world even more with his yelling and lying, which is a proven tactic employed by Mr. Bolton. This does not bother the President. He continues to not only ignore members of Senate, but also the people of this country and force his appointees.

We must hope that the United Nations does not base their overall view of the United States on a rogue leader that we have sitting in the White House. This leader has done nothing for the people, but only focused his attention on business and war. I truly feel sorry for our next President as he/she will have one hell of a mess to clean up!