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Senate? Senate? We don't need no stinkin Senate!

What laws have been broken?
It all depends... Is the Proforma Senate Session legitimate? Did Dubya make any recess appointments while the Senate was conducting ProForma Sessions? If he did this is a non issue and if he did not why are Democrats insisting its OK to make them now but it wasn't ok for Bush to make them?...

Can someone answer these questions?
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
It all depends... Is the Proforma Senate Session legitimate? Did Dubya make any recess appointments while the Senate was conducting ProForma Sessions? If he did this is a non issue and if he did not why are Democrats insisting its OK to make them now but it wasn't ok for Bush to make them?...

Can someone answer these questions?
If Bush had done the exact same thing I'd have to say that the idea of pretending to be in session to sustain a hold on a presidential appointment is wrong. It is a misuse of a procedure. Bush did make recess appointments...far more than Obama has done. The pretense of being in session is a meaningless gesture and is not part of any law that Obama can be held in violation of....
 
If Bush had done the exact same thing I'd have to say that the idea of pretending to be in session to sustain a hold on a presidential appointment is wrong. It is a misuse of a procedure. Bush did make recess appointments...far more than Obama has done. The pretense of being in session is a meaningless gesture and is not part of any law that Obama can be held in violation of....
Yes everyone knows Bush made a lot of recess appointments. Did he make any while Reid was conducting his Proforma Sessions? I honestly don't know and it is important to know this if you are comparing apples to apples
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
Yes everyone knows Bush made a lot of recess appointments. Did he make any while Reid was conducting his Proforma Sessions? I honestly don't know and it is important to know this if you are comparing apples to apples
It doesn't matter. The original reason for recess appointments was the amount of time it took to recall members of congress in an emergency. That is no longer much of a problem. The current procedure, where a president knows the congress will stop his appointment so he waits for them to leave town and makes the appointment anyway is silly and both sides do it. The dems tried to stop Bush from appointing Bolton...because they objected to a half wit being our representative in the UN. The republicans wanted to hold up the appointment to the Consumer protection agency because they don't like the agency.

The fact is that the republicans need to come back to reality. We have serious problems and the tactics they've chosen to use are unacceptable....
 
It doesn't matter. The original reason for recess appointments was the amount of time it took to recall members of congress in an emergency. That is no longer much of a problem. The current procedure, where a president knows the congress will stop his appointment so he waits for them to leave town and makes the appointment anyway is silly and both sides do it. The dems tried to stop Bush from appointing Bolton...because they objected to a half wit being our representative in the UN. The republicans wanted to hold up the appointment to the Consumer protection agency because they don't like the agency.

The fact is that the republicans need to come back to reality. We have serious problems and the tactics they've chosen to use are unacceptable....
To the contrary it Does matter
This could be the Constitution that is being trampled on.

That's why the questions are important, Is a Proforma Session legal? Did Bush make appointments during a proforma session? It could be he did and its a moot point. But if he did not this opens up a whole new can of worms and exemplifies the double standard I feel is prevalent in our government and in the minds of progressives
 

Lapcat

Governor
And....

Obama don need no steenken constitution either. Hell, compared to the lie lefties bleat about Bush saying it's just a g'damned piece of paper....

Obama has CRAPPED all over it and used it for his personal toilet paper, symbolically speaking.
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
To the contrary it Does matter
This could be the Constitution that is being trampled on.

That's why the questions are important, Is a Proforma Session legal? Did Bush make appointments during a proforma session? It could be he did and its a moot point. But if he did not this opens up a whole new can of worms and exemplifies the double standard I feel is prevalent in our government and in the minds of progressives
It would not change the legality of the action just because Bush did it also. What we are talking about is Obama violating Senate rules.....There is nothing in the constitution about proforma sessions....as a matter of fact, there is nothing defining a session....that is the problem.

If, by law, as session of congress can only be called if there is a quorum, then how can a single senator be a session?
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
Where in the constitution does it say that a single senator would be a legal session of the senate?
 
Where in the constitution does it say that a single senator would be a legal session of the senate?
So did Bush make any appointments during a Proforma session? yes or no I did a brief search and couldn't find the answer. My guess is he did. But it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't to avoid the bad press the leftist pirhana journalists would give him in their typically vile, sleezy and deceptive fashion. that ain't gonna happen to Obama
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
typically vile, sleezy and deceptive fashion

You mean like the Fox news coverage of Obama? Remember when the Fox News Anchor called a high five between Michelle and Barack a "terrorist fist bump"?
 
No, He did not. Once Unkle Harry told him they were in performa session, he backed off. He was pissed but followed the wishes of the Senate. The honorable thing to do. Something the commie in the WH now wouldn't know or care about.
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
Bush & "honorable" are two words that don't belong in the same sentence. Got a link to prove Bush acted as you imagine?
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
By the way....here are the opinions of some of Bush's advisors:

As Steven Bradbury and John Elwood, two key constitutional advisors during the Bush Administration, explained in 2010:

Historically, the recess appointments clause has been given a practical interpretation. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 67, the clause enables the president to keep the government fully staffed when the Senate is not “in session for the appointment of officers.” . . . [A 1905 Senate report] cautioned that a “recess” means “something actual, not something fictitious.” The executive branch has long taken the same common-sense view. In 1921, citing opinions of his predecessors dating back to the Monroe administration, Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty argued that the question “is whether in a practical sense the Senate is in session so that its advice and consent can be obtained. To give the word ‘recess’ a technical and not a practical construction, is to disregard substance for form.”

The Senate, of course, does not meet as a body during a pro forma session. By the terms of the recess order, no business can be conducted, and the Senate is not capable of acting on the president’s nominations. That means the Senate remains in “recess” for purposes of the recess appointment power, despite the empty formalities of the individual senators who wield the gavel in pro forma sessions.


On top of that....find a place in the constitution where it says how long the senate must be in recess before the president can do a recess appointment.
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
In fact the constitution says that the president may make appointments when the congress is not in session. Nowhere in the constitution does it say how long the recess has to be before the president can make the appointment. So five minutes after the senate is in recess, the president can legally make a recess appointment.....
 
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