I Remember Recess. It Was In Grade School.

When is Congress in recess? I think we all know the answer to that question. Far too often, that's when. And during a congressional recess the president has the right to special, one year appointments to positions that the Senate hasn't acted on. Now there's two problems here. First the Senate shouldn't hold up appointments of needed personnel just because they don't like the President or his choice or the department the appointee will head. But sometimes they do. The second point is that this is a rather poor law that does allow a president to ignore the Senate, even if he ought to do just that. Nearly all, if not all, presidents have done it. George W. Bush did it twice as often as Obama, but in between times, the Senate decided to try to stop the practice by trying to change some Senate rules. Now some Senators claim that they are always in session, even when there's nobody in the Senate but the cleaning lady. When all the Senators are home for the holidays or to do some greatly needed campaigning, they claim the Senate is still in session. How can they do that? Well, every few days one Senator shows up, opens the Senate, under the condition that no business may be conducted, and ten seconds later closes again so he can go home. I imagine they take turns. I like to call this the Phony Senate or maybe it could be the Ghosts Of Senates Present. So what do you think about this ghostly trickery the Senate is trying to pull off. Well, President Obama has challenged them to a ghostly duel. He made four recess appointments. One, Mr Richard Cordray, to head the new Consumer Protection Agency and three to the Labor Relations Board to fill vacancies. The minority Republican Senators are really upset about it. They don't like this law that set up the Consumer Protection Agency and have never liked the Labor Relation Board, even when they had mostly Republicans on it. Well what you or I think of these appointments doesn't matter. That's because I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court will decide the answer. But whether it matters or not, I think that the Senate should try to be a little more honest. If they're going to be in session, then they need to be there. And not just a few. If not, then they're in recess. Well, except maybe for Halloween.