Senate GOP Blocking Obama Nominees In Attempt To Delay Health Care And Climate Legislation

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/15/obama-nominees-delayed/

Senate GOP Blocking Obama Nominees In Attempt To Delay Health Care And Climate Legislation


In April, ThinkProgress noted that Republicans were blocking an increasing number of President Obama’s nominees to pursue ideological witch hunts and to facilitate self-interested horse trades. Two months later, a number of key nominees are still waiting and Senate Republicans are bottling up dozens more of Obama’s nominees in order to delay action on key Obama agenda items like health care and climate change legislation by consuming one of the most precious resources in the Senate: floor time. Roll Call explains:

Reid came to the floor three times Wednesday and several more times throughout the week to plead with his Republican colleagues to stop holding up a growing number of President Barack Obama’s appointees. The Majority Leader’s appeal was his most forceful yet, and aides say he has no plans to abandon the effort anytime soon.

“I would hope that people would search their conscience and try to get these done,” Reid said, explaining that procedural motions that he could employ to clear the nominees would eat up too much floor time. “It would take until the summer, until we finish the July recess and beyond, for us to get this done, filing cloture on every one of these. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Absent unanimous consent from all senators, no issue may be considered by the full Senate unless it is given time on the Senate floor for debate. Although such a debate can be cut off by a cloture motion — a vote receiving the support of 60 senators — such a motion itself consumes floor time. Thus, by indiscriminately objecting to President Obama’s nominees, a single senator can effectively force Reid to choose between confirming essential government personnel or advancing health care reform, cap and trade, the federal budget or anything else on the Senate’s agenda. Floor time is limited and Senate conservatives are running out the clock to ensure that nothing gets done.

Among the nominees conservatives are holding hostage are Dawn Johnsen, President Obama’s exceptionally qualified nominee to head the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, Harold Koh, a leading expert in international law who is nominated to be the chief legal adviser to the State Department, and Judge David Hamilton, a court of appeals nominee currently being blocked because of false claims that he gave preferential treatment to Muslims in favor of Christians.

[DrToast]

1. Arrghhhh....what the fuck is wrong with this people?!!?

Country first, my ass!

[Thrill]

2. Weakest majority leader ever

.

[Turbineguy]

3. You delay it.

You own it.

[keithjx]

4. One reason floor time is limited

is because they go on vacation. Tell the GOP that floor time will be extended through 4th of July vacation to work on cloture for these nominations and see how many stick around....
KJ

[babylonsister]

5. Excellent thought-it'll never happen. Reid needs his vacation, too.

Priorities...

[Cha]

6. Rec~ your post~

There's gotta be way around it and I'm thinking Team Obama can come up with something.

[Cha]

7. Rec'd~ Freakin' Faux

"christian" terrorists.

[dsc]

8. There is a fairly simple way around this

Go on a recess, the minimum needed for recess appointments, and Obama appoints every last one of those people to their rightful places.

[babylonsister]

9. That's a great idea. I wonder if they'll have a watchdog assigned

during recess, like the Dems have done in the past?

[dsc]

10. they can't

that only works if you are the party in charge. We didn't call recesses when we had the watchdogs.

[babylonsister]

11. Thanks. I didn't know that, or think it through. So,

we couldn't have changed the recess appointment of Bolton even if there was a Dem presence?

If so, that makes me feel nominally better.

There's no way this could be stopped? Then by all means!

[dsc]

12. If we weren't in charge of the Senate

then no we couldn't do anything.

[MasonJar]

13. It is time to get Franken in the Senate. What is happening in Minn.?

Also Reid must go. There is no way that he is doing his job with the number of senators who are dems. There are methods. One way is to prevent vacations until business is closed. Dems were not allowed to hold up anything despite the GOpers having less majority pre-2006.

[Arkana]

14. Goddamnit, Reid, GROW A PAIR OF TESTICLES, you fucking wuss.

MAKE THEM FILIBUSTER. MAKE THEM LOOK OBSTRUCTIONIST.

[SpartanDem]

15. Assholes

Reid better make them work through the recess