Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday night to a Republican demand ...
Democratic leaders have agreed ...
Democrats agreed earlier in the day to a Republican demand ...
What's all this about Democrats "agreeing" with Republican demands as Congress closes up shop until the election? Any doubts now about why Democratic voters are not eager to fund and vote for Democrats?
The Hill reports it's all part of a package containing no gifts for Democrats.
It's about denying the president the opportunity to make recess appointments during the time Congress is back home campaigning. Why would Democrats agree to such a deal?
Under the law, the president can only make a recess appointment if the Senate is adjourned for more than three consecutive days.
By scheduling pro-forma sessions on Mondays and Fridays, lawmakers can take away Obama’s ability to make recess appointments.
Obama had 115 executive- and judicial-branch nominees pending on the Senate’s executive calendar as of Wednesday afternoon.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had threatened to send Obama’s most controversial nominees back to the president if Democrats did not agree to schedule pro-forma sessions, according to a senior GOP aide.
Senate rules give McConnell this power.
That would have forced the president to resubmit the nominees to the Senate and Democrats to start their confirmation processes (including hearings) all over again.
Next question: how did Democrats allow Mitch McConnell to accumulate the kind of power that makes these moves possible? Well, for a start McConnell is taking advantage of every obscure rule the Senate has to block fellow senators and the president and the Democrats were and are in disarray.
Senators rarely invoke this rule, but McConnell threatened to object unless Democrats agreed to prevent Obama from making recess appointments.
I still don't get why Democrats agree to bend over so frequently and obscenely. Or why, given all this, there is such surprise and terror within the Democratic party structure at the sight of Democratic voters drifting -- even galloping -- away from the DLC party.
