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| 5/23 |
| 2005/8/1-3 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton] UID:38914 Activity:moderate |
8/1 I'm surprised there has been no Bolton discussion yet. Any bets on
how China will react when our UN Ambassador is taken out in handcuffs
for his part in the Plame matter?
\_ Let me get this straight, if the Congress doesn't want to approve
a nominee under any circumstances, the president can just say, "oh
well, we'll just wait until those pesky lawmakers go home" and
appoint him anyway? Am I the only one whom this strikes as a
bit, oh, I dunno, REALLY FUCKING DEFECTIVE? -John
\_ Yeah, I was wondering about that myself. -jrleek
\_ Yeah, it's part of the legacy of the constant give-and-take
between Executive and Legislative branches; the correct
response of a responsible congress would be to block all
nominations made by the President until he withdraws Bolton
as Ambassador; this would send a clear message reminding the
President that he is, in fact, a President and not a King.
Odds of this happening? Zero to none.
\_ Because Bush is the first prez evar to use a recess
appointment.
\_ But he _is_ on target to use it the most. Also, Clinton
did 140 or so. Can you name any of them other than
the gay Ambassador to Luxembourg? I can name a number
of Bush's..
\_ I remember Bill Lann Lee's appointment by Clinton.
Here's an old article on recess appointments
http://slate.msn.com/id/1002994 . Interesting
recess appointments include Thurgood Marshall,
Earl Warren, William Brennan, and Potter Stewart.
\_ You mean you got this slate article on your
first google hit (rather than "remembering BLL").
If you had just said "Bill Lee" you wouldn't
sound so phony.
\_ Bill Lann Lee has always been referred to with
his full name. I'd be the phony *if* I called
him "Bill Lee" (and, indeed, I probably would
not have remembered his name were he plain old
Bill Lee). Try googling "Bill Lann Lee"
him "Bill Lee". Try googling "Bill Lann Lee"
if you wish. I take it you were unaware of
his confirmation drama.
\_ Comparing the ambassador to Luxemborg with the
ambassador to the UN really only demonstrates how silly
you are.
\_ Now, if only we can decide which post is the more
important...
\_ Burn. -- ilyas
\_ There is no real evidence that Bolton has anything to do with
the Plame investigation, just a lot of speculation.
\_ Okay then, how 'bout when he's cuffed for perjuring himself
in his confirmation hearing by saying he wasn't interviewed
by Fitzgerald
\_ No no no. Perjury is ONLY bad when a D POTUS does it.
\_ And then only if it's about something that has zero
to do with running the country, say, hypothetically,
consensual oral sex between two adults.
\_ You know, people always make this remark. But I think
it's fairly natural to think the POTUS, in some sense,
'represents America.' In particular, the POTUS ought to
conform to American cultural norms, which involves
avoiding things like infidelity and borderline perjury.
-- ilyas
\_ See, this is where I'm always surprised at your
idealism, ilya. I have never expected personal
perfection from a politician. This remark does
color the validity of impeachment. He did not
misuse the office to perform his bad act. He did
it all on his own. It tarnishes _his_ presidency,
but not _the_ presidency. I agree with your choice
of "ought". Yes, the president ought to behave,
but Clinton was wrongly impeached and rightly not
removed.
\_ I don't expect personal perfection from a
politician -- far from it. But it is surprising
that the bar is set so low that those Bad Things
I mentioned 'get a pass' so to speak. I mean does
it really take so much character to avoid
compulsively lying and sleeping around outside
your marriage? -- ilyas
\_ Who said to give him a pass? A more
appropriate action would have been censure.
I bet they could even have worded it to get
it to pass unanimously.
\_ I don't understand. Tarnishing 'his
Presidency' deserves censure, but
tarnishing 'the Presidency' deserves
impeachment? Are these things written down
somewhere, or is this just your personal
opinion on what should be done? -- ilyas
\_ Of course it's just my opinion.
\_ You know, there sure as heck was a lot
of criticism of the EVIL REPUBLICAN
WITCHHUNT at the time, and even now,
for a matter that reduces, ultimately,
to a matter of opinion. Thanks for
discussing this civilly, Ben.
-- ilyas
\_ Stop harassing that nice man from the oatmeal commercial!
\_ Appoint Bolton as ambassador. It's the right thing to do. |
| 5/23 |
|
| slate.msn.com/id/1002994 Michael Brus Posted Monday, June 14, 1999, at 4:48 PM PT Earlier this month, on the final day of a congressional recess, President Clinton appointed James Hormel ambassador to Luxembourg without Senate confirmation. A recess appointment is one o f the executive powers enumerated in the Constitution: "The President sh all have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Reces s of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the end o f their next Session" (II, 2, 3). The provision was originally created t o fill vacancies that actually occurred during a recess, but it has sinc e morphed into an all-purpose executive tool to counter Senate intransig ence. President Kennedy, for instance, appointed Thurgood Marshall to th e bench during a recess because he feared opposition from Southern senat ors. By the time Marshall's nomination came before the Senate, that resi stance had been beaten back. Presidents also use recess appointments to delay a confirmation vote unti l after an election, when the nominee possesses the advantage of incumbe ncy and, ideally, faces a friendlier Congress. President Eisenhower appo inted three justices during recesses: Earl Warren, William Brennan, and Potter Stewart. All three occurred immediately before an election, and a ll were confirmed the following spring by a new Congress. Hormel, an heir to the meat-packing family and a San Francisco-area phila nthropist, is openly homosexual and a large contributor to the Democrati c party (over $200,000 in the '95-'96 election cycle). Conservative reli gious groups have complained that he has refused to condemn the Catholic -spoofing performance group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Hormel's appointment will last un til December 2000, several weeks before Clinton steps down. Clinton has used the recess appointment relatively sparingly; his average of nine per year is far lower than Reagan's 30 and Bush's 20. And the G OP Congress has consented to at least one unconfirmed Clinton appointmen t: When Drew Days stepped down as solicitor general in July 1996, the Se nate let Clinton appoint Walter Dellinger--already confirmed as an asssi stant attorney general--as "acting" solicitor general after Dellinger pr omised to serve only one year. But the Senate hasn't looked kindly on most unconfirmed appointments. Whe n Congress took a recess in 1997 and warned Clinton not to appoint contr oversial NAACP lawyer Bill Lann Lee to the Justice Department while it w as gone, the president appointed Lee as an acting official instead of ma king a recess appointment. And since acting officials must be employed b y the DOJ at the time of appointment, Lee was first hired as deputy assi stant attorney general, which requires no confirmation, and later that d ay promoted to the position for which he had been nominated -- assistant attorney general for civil rights -- in an acting capacity. Congress cl osed this loophole as part of last year's budget deal. Meanwhile, Lee ha s been "acting" in that position for more than 500 days. Explainer thanks Professor Brannon Denning of the Southern Illinois Unive rsity College of Law, Samuel Bagenstos of Harvard Law School, and Lin La rson of the University of Iowa. Michael Brus, a former Slate assistant editor, is a writer and social wor ker in Seattle. Fighting Words: Go Ahead, Ask Roberts About the Pope Catholic Justice Everybody seems to have agreed to tiptoe around the report that Judge Joh n G Roberts said ... |