These are the letters I just sent to Webb and Warner
Some backstory here first. If the Senate goes into Recess (i.e. adjourn for a bit) they are not in session. When that is so, the law gives the President, Whom I do not like, a reasonable option to fill vacancies, especially those that are vitally needed, and/or which might find resistance from the legislature branch, had the person been submitted formally for the post. Now, recess appointments are nothing new. Neither side likes to admit it, but they have both taken advantage of it.
Now we have the democraps engaging in parlimentary legalist proceduralistic ‘tricks’ to say they are NOT in recess, they are THERE. Well lets’ see how and who was actually there, shall well?
By LAURIE KELLMAN
In such situations, pro forma sessions also could give Bush some political cover on popular legislation he doesn’t want to sign. When Congress is holding pro forma sessions and is not formally adjourned, a bill sent to a president automatically becomes law in 10 days unless he vetoes it.
That could be the fate of two bills Congress passed last week. One growing out of the Virginia Tech massacre makes it harder for people with mental illness records to buy guns. The other makes it easier for journalists and others to obtain government documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
In practice, Wednesday’s pro forma process was almost comical.
“Good morning!” Webb, sporting a respectful tie and jacket, called to the floor staff assembled just for the occasion in an otherwise sleepy and chilly Capitol. One clerk congratulated Webb on being 30 seconds early, thrice the amount of time it would take to complete the Senate’s work for the day.
Climbing to the president’s chair, Webb took the gavel and banged it.
“The Senate will come to order,” he intoned, reading from a two-line script to a floor empty of other senators but witnessed from the gallery by one reporter and about a half dozen staffers. “Under the previous order, the Senate stands in recess until Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 10 a.m.”
His work done, Webb left. The floor staff reported to those in the gallery overhead that the session had lasted nine seconds.
“I didn’t appoint myself ambassador to a tropical nation,” Webb, a former Navy secretary, novelist and TV journalist, quipped to a reporter afterwards.
Before Congress left last week, Democrats scheduled 11 pro forma sessions to fill the void until the Senate returns to regular session on Jan. 22. The purpose was to stop Bush from using the constitutional power presidents hold under the Constitution to bypass Senate confirmation and unilaterally install his nominees in office when Congress is adjourned.
Democrats wanted to block one such recess appointment in particular: Steven Bradbury, acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Counsel. Bush nominated Bradbury for the job and asked the Senate to remove the “acting” in his title.
Democrats would have none of it, complaining Bradbury had signed two secret memos in 2005 saying it was OK for the CIA to use harsh interrogation techniques _ some call it torture _ on terrorism detainees.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Bush refused to rule out appointing Bradbury to the job if the Senate formally adjourned. So, Reid decided to keep the Senate in session with pro forma meetings every two or three days.
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/vaapwire.apx.-content-articles-AP-2007-12-26-0039.html
Mr Warner
Below is a letter I just posted to Mr Webb. As his fellow Senator from Virginia, I wished to present my views on him, WRT the (To me at least) dishonorable event this 26th day of December. To wit, his gaveling in and out of a session in a mere nine seconds, to an empty chamber. Simply to prevent Bush from appointing a recess appointment.
Now my gripes about what he did are below. My gripes with YOU and your fellow Republican Senators are as follows. You did nothing. No Republican Senator was there to protest, to attempt to force something, begin some attempt to force the whole senate to come to order. SOMETHING. You did NOTHING! What does that say about the Republican Party, that they just sit it out on vacation. They allow the absurdity of the Majority party calling to order for NINE SECONDS! Were you, the Republican party, outwitted? Couldn’t round up enough members to do SOMETHING rather than just acquiese to the event. Could the ‘vaunted republican party’ come up with NOTHING to do? Have you all just GIVEN UP? If so, please do resign/retire immediately. There needs to be room for us Libertarians to move in. We have much work to do, seeing as how NO ONE SEEMS TO BE DOING ANY OF THE WORK THAT THEY WERE ELECTED TO DO!
Mr Webb
I was once proud to serve under you, when you were SECNAV. I was also proud to be a “Veteran for Webb” and even drove people to the polls because your campaign asked me to. I was proud to stand up for you and to campaign for you and to give my support to you. You said you represented something different. You made us think that you weren’t like the rest of the politicians out there. You were a vet and you had honor. You were a Marine, and had principles.
Well, your recent performance on the senate floor gives the lie to all of the above. I am ashamed to have ever supported you. The parlimentary trick of calling the senate into ’session’ for nine seconds, just to get over on the President, was and is a dishonorable means to a questionable end. It is just the sort of thing that a politician would do.
Now, before you sideline/roundfile this as another neocon/republican/bushie democrat bashing, let me point out that a) I am a Libertarian, and mostly so due to the past 7 years
b) I do not support bush, nor most of his policies, and damn few of his appointments
c) I was and am against the war in Iraq, and was so when I was on active duty. I don’t think we can just pull out in one fell swoop. We made a mess over there, and it’s on us to clean it up.
d) I am a retired Navy Chief (1982-2005). I was in on the opening days of OIF (Red Sea Strike Force). I did my duty, and I think did it honorably. I respect those who serve and who have served, and grieve over the needless deaths in Iraq. I knew the war was preordained in March of 2002. We were told there would be 6 carriers in the Gulf in the Spring of 2003 by an admiral who would know. As a former secnav, you would know the immense logistic challenges and the associated timelines to make that happen. So it was a con job to get the Iraq war going. So be it. We made the mess, we need to clean it up.
I put the above out there so that you can see I am NOT a Bush fan/supporter. I WAS a Webb supporter, up until the point at which you voluntarily participated in a political trick, which may have been ‘legal’ but was no way a Marine Officer might be expected to operate. That was nothing more than we the people have learned to expect from those people in government. End runs, parlimentary tricks, breaking faith with doing the right thing. If you (the democratic party) were going to stay in session, couldn’t you all have at least done some actual WORK? Isn’t that what we the people PAY YOU FOR? To accomplish things? And not to engage in ‘mine is bigger’ with the president.
No longer a Webb Supporter
I remain
William Hunteman
Libertarian
The Party of PRINCIPLE
Run over to your window, open it, and yell as loud as you can “I am mad as hell and Im NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!”
Tags: demeaning of the political process, democrats, holding the process hostage, Jim Webb, John Warner, Loss of Honor, Politics as usual, republicans, Senate, useless as teats on a boar hog, Virginia
