Gee, I guess they really DON'T want a vote on Bolton.

[Ready4Change]

Clearly they only wanted Bolton ACCEPTED. The voting part wasn't really needed. All those ads on TV regarding Bolton, saying he deserved an up or down vote?

Further, what does that say about the nearly identical ads now being run about Roberts?

How does it reflect on the latest "compromise" regarding judicial appointments? Still think these people give a single, flying fark about compromising?

[wtmusic]

1. Up or down vote! Up or down vote!

Er...I mean, just the man we need for the UN! :silly:

[Ready4Change]

6. Exactly.

They just say whatever supports getting what they want.

[LeftNYC]

2. Is there a press briefing today? nt

[Lerkfish]

3. roberts will be appointed, also.

[Ready4Change]

7. I can't see why not.

Is there any reason Bush should hesitate to do so? If not now, won't there be another recess around the winter holidays?

[Strawman]

4. I guess it's "Up or no vote"

That's what they really want. That's our choice.

[Ready4Change]

5. When were the last "recess appointments" made?

Bush has done it twice during his administration. Any other recent Presidents make use of this option?

[gratuitous]

9. I think Clinton used the recess appointment for James Hormel

Clinton wanted Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg. Hormel had the necessary qualifications (he was wealthy, had contributed to Clinton's campaign, and Luxembourg isn't a politically sensitive place), Luxembourg liked him, so Clinton nominated him. Unfortunately, Hormel had the bad taste to be homosexual, so Jesse Helms and his colleagues from the Troglodyte Right held up the nomination, refused even to hold hearings on Hormel, and bottled up his nomination for years. Clinton finally made him a recess appointment, much to Jesse's consternation, and the usual fake outrage of the Mighty Republican Wurlitzer.

There were no significant questions about Hormel's qualifications, the propriety of the appointment, and all that the Senate needed to come to a decision about his nomination was freely and fully available, furnished by the Clinton administration. All observers agreed that should the nomination come to the Senate floor in an up or down vote, Hormel would have sailed through with over 80 votes to confirm.

Compare and contrast to the situation with John Bolton.

[Ready4Change]

11. Thanks. These appointments far more common than I thought.

And I'm getting amused by all the complaints of these people "playing politics."

They are ALL playing politics. When was the last time they DIDN'T play politics. An empty complaint, imo.

[dsc]

12. actually Helms did allow hearings and the man was voted out

what ended up happening was that holds were put on him by Brownback and a couple other Senators. Helms, though opposed, actually didn't block him.

[Sparkman]

13. Recess Appoint process was created when it took weeks to travel to D.C.

and when immergency senate legislation prompted government action, they could still function and respond to crisis. Like you said, we always benefit from comparisons to the Repub's legislation tactics or Repub political tactics.

[Ready4Change]

10. Answering my own question here.

Recess appointments are far more common than I thought. Here's an article from the era of the Clinton Administrations:

http://slate.msn.com/id/1002994/

A quote from it:

"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."

I also saw on CNN that Dubya has made 106 recess appointments. As he's been in office about 5 years now that comes out to about 21 per year, a tad more than his dads pace.

[bandddf]

14. Recess Appts

President Clinton: 140 recess appointments over two terms. Among them:

* Former Sen. Wyche Fowler, D-Ga., ambassador to Saudi Arabia, August 1996. Put in the post two months after a bombing that killed 19 American soldiers stationed there, he received Senate confirmation in October 1997 and served until March 2001.

* Mickey Kantor, commerce secretary, April 1996. He replaced Ron Brown, who died in a plane crash, but left in January 1997 before his nomination went before the Senate.

* Roger Gregory, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, December 2000. He was later re-nominated by Bush and confirmed by the Senate.

* Bill Lann Lee, assistant attorney general for civil rights, August 2000. Blocked by Senate Republicans, he was appointed acting assistant attorney general in 1997, then received the recess appointment to serve out Clinton's term.

* James Hormel, ambassador to Luxembourg, June 1999. A gay philanthropist whose nomination was blocked by Senate Republicans, he remained ambassador until near the end of Clinton's term.

[Ready4Change]

16. Doesn't jibe with article I referenced.

That article said Clinton averaged 9 appointments a year. That would come out ot ~72 total. Your number is TWICE that amount.

Article said Reagans average was 30 a year. That would be ~240

Article, again, said Bush1 averaged 20 a year. That would be 80 for his single, 4 year term.

Saw on CNN Bush2 is already over 100, which would be about 20 per year.

Where are your numbers from? Do they have the same for anyone OTHER than Clinton?

[bandddf]

17. Recess appt

http://web.ask.com/fr?u=http%3A%2F%2Fseattlepi.nwsource.com%2Fnational%2Fapwashington_story.asp%3Fcategory%3D1151%26slug%3DRecess%2520Appointments%2520Glance&s=a&bu=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.ask.com%2Fweb%3Fq%3Drecess%2Bappointments%26o%3D10234%26page%3D1&q=recess+appointments&o=10234&qt=0

San Diego paper agrees.

Look at Ask.Jeeves and Google, etc

[Ready4Change]

18. Thanks. Others of note from that article.

"President Bush: 106 recess appointments, including Bolton, mostly to minor posts." (5 years of his two terms served at this point.)

"President Clinton: 140 recess appointments over two terms." (8 years0

"The first President Bush made 77 recess appointments over one term," (4 years]

"and President Reagan made 243 over two terms." (8 years)

So, looks like Clinton did a rush of appointments during his lasft few years, raising his average from 9 to almost 17.5 per year.

That's a bit less than the first Bush conducted during his single term (rate of 19.25)

The current administration, if we say its about 5 years in at this point, is at a rate of 21.2 per year.

And they all pale compared with St. Ronnie, at a Congress defying rate of 30.375 per year.

Thanks for the info (Now that I've read the whole thing, btw.)

[dogday]

8. The spin it all, up or down vote, whatever floats

Just like with Roberts. The spin was out, that he was moderate, nice guy, everybody like Roberts, good attorney, great judge. So any questions the Democrats asked are going to look we are angry and playing partisan politics....

[AngelAsuka]

15. Recess Appointment?

When I was in elementary school, a recess appointment was a little clique meeting away from the lunch woman!

I guess the 'recess' part still holds true though... I didn't think that the adults in charge would need recess. Whats next, naptime and storytime? :)

~~AA~~