senate confirmation

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.

This is a very interesting development that I am sure Bush is working on blocking:

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Gonzales got a morale boost with a phone call from President George W. Bush, their first conversation since a week ago, when the president said he was unhappy with how the Justice Department handled the firings.

Also, the Senate by a 94-2 vote passed a bill that would cancel the attorney general's power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists. The administration denied the charge.

(emphasis mine)

Of course Tom Delay is trying to spin this into some sort of "manufactured" scandal:

Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay had said earlier Tuesday that the scandal "is just a taste of what's going to be like for the next two years."

"And the Bush administration sort of showed their weakness when they got rid of Don Rumsfeld," the Texan said on NBC television's "Today" show. "... This is a made up scandal. There is no evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. ... They ought to be fighting back."

Right Tom. Because Congress' time and taxpayers money is better off spent investigating serious items such as blow jobs and Christmas card lists. Interesting that a man under indictment is the person the media wants to turn to for political opinion on this issue. Why don't they just ask Duke Cunningham about Carol Lam or Scooter Libby about Patrick Fitzgerald?

Looks like Captain Duct Tape and Plastic could become the permanent head of FEMA:

With hurricane season two months away, President George W. Bush is likely to nominate the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Paulison, as his permanent choice to head the agency, a Republican official said on Sunday.

Paulison, a veteran firefighter, was named acting director of FEMA after Michael Brown resigned last September in the face of bitter complaints about the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Republican official said it was expected that an announcement would come soon nominating Paulison, 59, to the position, which requires Senate confirmation.

Of course he is not the first choice. As matter of fact, by reports, he is not the second or third choice:

The calls went out across the nation, as Bush administration officials asked the country's most seasoned disaster response experts to consider the job of a lifetime: FEMA director. But again and again, the response over the past several months was the same: "No thanks."

Unconvinced that the administration is serious about fixing the Federal Emergency Management Agency or that there is enough time actually to get it done before President Bush's second term ends, seven of these candidates for director or another top FEMA job said in interviews that they had pulled themselves out of the running.

"You don't take the fire chief job after someone has burned down the city unless you are going to be able to do it in the right fashion," said Ellis M. Stanley, general manager of emergency planning in Los Angeles, who said he was one of those called.