Marathon Pundit: Reid and recess appointments: Wrong then or wrong now?

Friday, February 03, 2012

Reid and recess appointments: Wrong then or wrong now?

Riviera Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas

Like a ball on a roulette wheel, you never know where Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) will land--sometimes black, sometimes white, and when he makes a bizarre comment along the lines of Barack Obama and his "negro dialect" gaffe, it ends up on green.

When President Bush was in office, Reid was in support of pro forma Senate sessions to prevent him from making recess appointments. With Obama in office, Reid is talking out of other other side of his mouth.

Republican senators are asking for an explanation, as The Hill reports.

A group of 34 Republican senators are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on "serious inconsistencies" in his positions on recess appointments.

The move comes as Republicans continue to push back against four recent recess appointments from the president, in which he ignored brief pro forma sessions of the Senate intended to block the moves. White House lawyers argued the sessions, which last just a few seconds, do not constitute legitimate Senate work and can be ignored, and Reid backed the decision.

But in a letter sent Thursday, the GOP lawmakers point out that it was Reid who originally pushed pro formas in a bid to block President George W. Bush from making recess appointments, beginning in 2007. Republicans accused Reid of putting politics above process in backing Obama's decision to ignore that type of session.

"It appears that you believe the importance of preserving Senate's constitutional role in the nomination and appointment process varies depending on the political party of the president," they wrote.