Statement of Senator Dodd on the President's Recess Appointment of Sam Fox

[wicket]

LINK

April 4, 2007

“It is outrageous that the President has sought to stealthily appoint Sam Fox to the position of ambassador to Belgium when the President formally requested that the Fox nomination be withdrawn from the Senate because it was facing certain defeat in the Foreign Relations Committee last week. I seriously question the legality of the President's use of the recess appointment authority in this instance. I intend to seek an opinion on the legality of this appointment from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and invite other Senators to join with me in that request. This is underhanded and an abuse of Executive authority -- sadly this behavior has become the hallmark of this administration.”

Kerry has also responded. I hope more join them! :grr:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. What we've come to expect . . .

. . . from the sleaze-machine. K&R

[bigwillq]

2. Thank you Sen. Dodd

:thumbsup:

[karlrschneider]

3. Unfortunately, it's probably completely legal.

...

[Hepburn]

4. Yeah....

....Alberto probably told him so.

I am soooooooo mega pissed over this! :mad:

[Gabi Hayes]

5. according to this, NOT if you're a strict constructionist!

"The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the end of their next Session" (II, 2, 3).

The provision was originally created to fill vacancies that actually occurred during a recess, but it has since morphed into an all-purpose executive tool to counter Senate intransigence.

http://slate.msn.com/id/1002994/

ORIGINAL INTENT, beeyotches!

[Bucky]

8. "all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate"

Did this vacancy happen *during* the recess? No. It'd already occurred. Fox had already been nominated and had had the chance to get confirmation. Seeing no confirmation available, he withdrew his name. Since the vacancy was there while the Senate was in session, presumedly the reason Fox was first nominated, I don't know if a recess appointment is appropriate under the law.

This one stinks.

[NewJeffCT]

19. I thought I saw that there was an exception

for those positions that paid a flat salary - like an ambassadorship. So, those positions were excluded from being recessed in?

I could be wrong, however.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. GOOD! I'm glad they may challenge the rat bastard!

This psycho must be stopped. He's challenging Congress at every corner and trying as hard as he can to destroy our Democracy. IMPEACH!

[BuyingThyme]

7. Thank you for LEADING, Mr. Dodd.

[kirby]

9. Why the fuck did you idiots Recess the Senate?

It should be in session until he leaves office because Bush will do this stuff.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

10. yes.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

11. It's Called Passover & Easter

I don't begrudge them some time away from Washington.

It's not like they're pulling a King george and taking the whole month off.

[Morgana LaFey]

13. I agree. And if anyone objects, let them IMPEACH him so they can

have regular recesses again. Otherwise, keep that Senate going, going, going, all hours of the night and day if necessary.

[bdamomma]

17. well I hope the constituents of these Senators are hearing a

sh$tload of complaints about this wicked administration.

[Morgana LaFey]

12. Good God, he pretends this is a first or something.

Unreal. Every single recess appointment has been an end-run around Congress, Senator. WAKE THE FUCK UP.

[wicket]

14. kick

:kick:

[bdamomma]

15. just another "FU to the Congress" by the boy/king

he needs to be slapped down.

[enki23]

16. i think this is the bush admin's strategy, in a nutshell

the strategy is to maintain a constant stream of purposefully orchestrated minor-to-medium outrages as chaff, to make it more difficult for public attention to focus on any single one of the major issues.

in any case, this CLEARLY undercuts the spirit of the law, (and, oddly, probably the most strict reading of the letter of the law). if this sort of behavior had been considered kosher, there would have been no purpose in providing this particular congressional oversight in the first place. this makes the entire process completely "optional." a show, and nothing more. it seems pretty clear that wasn't the original intent.

[Marie26]

18. Does anybody know

who the other recess appointments were? I read that there were 6 in all.

[KharmaTrain]

20. Hmmmm...How About Keeping The Government Open???

The only way to prevent his assholiness from pulling more of these games is to keep the House and Senate in session even when they're not. Pelosi and Reed can keep their respective houses in session during break periods...in essence doing the opposite of what the Repugnicans are hoping for...a shutdown. IRC, there is a procedure that can be used to keep the houses in session even during "off times"...doing quorum calls and having one or two members stick around and read the classifieds from the local paper on the House floor if needs be...thus preventing the abuse of recess appointments.

Hopefully Dodd has found a technicality to keep Fox's appointment from moving forward...and surely the fine folks of Belgium will politely shun this pseudo envoy.