Obama’s “Recess” Appointments Show Constitutional Scholar Willing to Shred the Constitution

Published January 5, 2012 | By dditton

President Barack Obama has pushed the level of Executive Power well beyond what any previous President has done with his recent, so-called, recess appointments. The only problems are not only are the nominees so controversial that they can’t get Democratically controlled Senate approval, but the Senate is technically not even in recess.

Even the Liberal New York Times had this to say about Obama’s “recess appointments”:

President Obama’s decision on Wednesday to grant recess appointments to four officials — even though the Senate contends that it is not in recess — was an unprecedented legal step that brought into sharper focus a recent bipartisan struggle over presidential power

In 2007, concerning Bush recess appointments, then Senator Obama said,

It’s disappointing that President Bush would defy the will of Congress by appointing Sam Fox Ambassador to Belgium. I opposed Mr. Fox’s nomination because I had serious concerns about his candor, judgment, and qualifications for this important post. Appointing nominees that are opposed by a majority in Congress simply because they are political cronies is old style politics at its worst. Our nation’s ambassadors should possess strong credibility and character so that they may effectively represent U.S. interests overseas, and I don’t think President Bush applied that test with this recess appointment.

It is one thing for a President to be hypocritical, there is not much new in that. It is quite another for a President who is a Constitutional scholar to have such utter disregard for the guiding document of our nation.