A Plan Only Politicians Could Conceive

I wrongly assumed that Congress was in recess for the traditional Thanksgiving break. As it turns out the Democratic majority is fielding a "designated floor leader" to conduct official Senate business each day. Today's session: about 1 minute long. The number of Senators in session? One lonely Democrat.

What is the purpose of this bizarre tactic? The Democrats are terrified of President Bush making recess appointments for vacant positions that require Senate confirmation while Congress is adjourned. I have not heard of this being done before.

The Constitution instructs that the President nominate candidates for leading executive branch positions, such as ambassadors, and federal and Supreme Court judges. The Senate must confirm or reject these candidate by a vote of the Senate. The problem is that the Senate continues to refuse to hold a vote on many, many candidates. This serious constitutional inaction leaves the positions vacant, which is not particularly helpful to a functioning executive or judicial branch.

A good example is U.N. Ambassador Bolton. The Democrats were grumpy because apparently Mr. Bolton had been mean to some of them when he was at the State Department. President Bush nominated him for the job of Ambassador to the U.N. The Democratic Senate refused to allow a confirmation vote.

President Bush finally did the only thing he could. He made a recess appointment temporarily installing Mr. Bolton as ambassador. When the next session of Congress began, the Democrats still refused to hold a confirmation vote and Ambassador Bolton had to leave the post. The unfortunate truth is that as ambassador Mr. Bolton provided exactly the right kind of tough but pragmatic leadership the U.S. needed in the United Nations.

Neither party is blameless regarding this constitutional process over the years. President Clinton made 140 recess appointments; President Bush has made 165 to date. But the Democrats have taken it to a new level of partisanship in their dealings with President Bush. If the Democrats don't like the candidates nominated, don't vote for them. Hold an up or down vote like the Constitution mandates and move on.

Refusing to bring these nominations up for a vote is a serious dereliction of constitutional duty. The President has the right to nominate whoever he thinks is right for the job and the Senate has the duty to confirm or reject the candidate with an up or down vote.

The amazing part is that the 1 minute a day sessions are accomplishing as much as the regular full-length sessions for the Democratic majority - mostly nothing with a lot of silly politics thrown in.