Reid may block Bush recess appointments again at Christmas

*May* is the operative word. It's not clear why the article is presenting this as only a possibility. What possible reason would there be for not doing this? Because Bush got upset the last time the Dems did it at Thanksgiving? That's a reason TO do this. Another reason: It is critically important that Bush not be allowed to jam radical appointees, like his Surgeon General nominee, down our throats without confirmation. There is only one year left, and with a slim majority in the Senate there are few things the Democrats can do to impede Bush doing even more damage to the country and to show their constituents, and the public at large, that the Congress is in fact relevant. Blocking Bush's recess appointments - appointments he is making to thwart Congress - is one of them.

Another reason for Dems to keep blocking Bush's recess appointments: The public likes seeing the Dems stand up to Bush. There have been numerous polls showing that the public wants the Democratic Congress to play the role of counterweight to Bush. Interestingly, I saw this first-hand with a recent post I did about Harry Reid blocking Bush's recess appointments at Thanksgiving. The story got 1,572 Diggs.



Those weren't just Diggs from my readers - a popular story on my site usually gets 20 Diggs, not 1,500 - that was a surge of support from Digg readers, readers across the Internet (that's also a damn good showing for a story on Digg itself). In other words, people across America liked what they saw, or at the very least, it caught their interest. And if the Democratic Congress needs anything, it's catching the interest of the American people, doing something that suggests that it's doing anything.

More from the Washington Post:

Christmas is usually a time when controversial nominees for top federal jobs wait for Santa, in the form of the president of the United States, to come down the chimney with their recess appointments.

Maybe not this year. Word is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in order to prevent President Bush from handing out those goodies, is now thinking about keeping the Senate in session during the Christmas-New Year's break, which starts at the end of next week and continues until the Senate returns in mid- to late January.

The unusual maneuver, which Reid first used during the recent Thanksgiving vacation, would block Bush from using his constitutional power -- derived from the days when the Senate could be out of session for months -- to fill vacancies. Such appointments made now would be valid through the end of Bush's presidency.

As a practical matter, if Reid decides to keep the Senate in session, such folks as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who came in from across the river to wield the gavel during the Thanksgiving break, would once again briefly open and close the Senate twice a week, in what are called pro forma sessions.

Senate Democrats have been particularly upset over several of Bush's recess appointees, including Charles Pickering to an appeals court seat and, more recently, Republican donor and Swift Boat ad-campaign contributor Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium.