Obama Won’t Make Recess Appointments Today

[onenote]

50. The opinion of the poster as I read it was that a recess appointment

in these particular circumstances -- where Congress adjourns and reconvenes simultaneously -- is a rare occurrence. Which it most certainly is, having been done only once in the nation's history, more than 100 years ago and having involved, for the most part, appointments of military commissions. When similar situations arose in 1992 and 1995, no attempt was made (by Bush I and by Clinton) to make a recess appointment. Indeed, no recess appointment has been made based on a recess of less than 10 days in recent memory.

I haven't seen anyone suggesting that Obama shouldn't make recess appointments. The problem is that his opportunity to do so has been blocked by the tactic of not recessing. This tactic, I might add, was used by the Democrats (and I heartily approved of them doing so) in 2007 and 2008, preventing bush II from making recess appointments after the Democrats reclaimed control of the Senate.

One last point: contrary to what people seem to think, before he was blocked (by the same sort of tactic that the Democrats used to block bush II), Obama's record in terms of recess appointments was comparable to bush II. In his first three years in office, Bush II made 34 "full time" recess appointments. (He also made 27 recess to "part time" positions, mostly advisory boards and foundations with little or no policy significance). During the first three years of his presidency, Obama has made 28 full time recess appointments. And, in reality, he managed to do that in only 2 years since he's been blocked from making more recess appointments since the repubs took over the House beginning 2011.