Reid to Bush: No recess, no recess appointments-Sen. Webb on Senate floor Tuesday

[babylonsister]

Reid to Bush: No recess, no recess appointments

By Matthew Hay Brown

His colleagues may all have left Washington for the Thanksgiving break, but Sen. Jim Webb will be back on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

The junior senator from nearby Virginia has been tapped by Majority Leader Harry Reid to open the upper chamber for a pro forma session, a tactic to keep the Senate from going into recess – and to keep President Bush from making recess appointments.

The Constitution gives the president authority to fill federal vacancies when the Senate is in recess – it’s how Theodore Roosevelt put Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. on the Supreme Court. More recently, the recess appointment has been used by presidents of both parties to bypass the confirmation process for controversial nominees.

Bush has used the authority to sidestep Senate filibusters against Charles Pickering and William Pryor, whom he appointed to U.S. courts of appeals, and John Bolton, who became U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Julie L. Myers, the assistant secretary of homeland security now under fire for giving a “best original costume” prize to an employee dressed as a dark-skinned, dreadlocked prisoner at a Halloween party last month, was another recess appointment.

Democrats remain particularly frosted by the installation this year of Sam Fox, the St. Louis businessman who helped to finance Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 election, as ambassador to Belgium

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/reid_to_bush_no_senate_recess.html#more