Posted on 01/12/2012 3:27:50 PM PST by Qbert
Calling the president’s illegal non-recess appointments “an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, dismissed a Justice Department memo on Thursday that sought to lend retroactive constitutional weight to the president’s move.
Grassley hinted at Senate “action to check and balance” the president’s power grab, though he declined to go into specifics. The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel’s memo, also debunked by Heritage’s Todd Gaziano, claims that pro forma Senate sessions do not preclude the president from unilaterally appointing federal officials. That legal opinion contradicts statements by former Obama Administration Solicitor General Elena Kagan – now a Supreme Court justice – and her deputy, Neal Katyal.
The memo was released on January 6, two days after Obama non-recess-appointed Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meaning the president did not wait for DOJ’s official legal opinion before moving forward with the appointments. Here’s what Grassley had to say in a news release:
The Justice Department opinion is unconvincing. Its conclusion is at odds with the text of the Constitution and the administration’s own previous statements. It fundamentally alters the careful separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches that the framers crafted in the Constitution. It relies on no Supreme Court decision and many conclusions are unsupported in law or the Constitution. It recognizes that the courts might well disagree. And it flies in the face of more than 90 years of historical practice. Taken together with a laundry list of other assertions of the power to act without Congress, this is clearly an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people. The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama’s blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush Administration refused to make.
Check out Gaziano’s response for a more detailed look at DOJ’s legal argument. Here’s an excerpt:
The not-too-deft argument in the OLC memo is that the President is free to take the Senate at its word that it would not conduct business during any period it sees fit except that the basis for that assumption also applied from Dec. 17 to Jan. 3. With unanimous consent, such business clearly can and was conducted during the period of time that OLC ignores. Moreover, those facts defeat the repeated finding in the opinion that the Senate is not available to receive messages from the President and act on them. The action on Dec. 23 proves beyond any doubt that they can receive such messages, loudly and clearly, and can act when they want to do so. Their desire not to act cannot be converted so easily into an inability to do so.Even more brazenly, the opinion states on page 21 that: “even absent a Senate pronouncement that it will not conduct business, there may be circumstances in which the President could properly conclude that the body is not available to provide advice and consent for a sufficient period to support the use of his recess appointment power.” There is no limit on this open-ended assertion of authority of the President to determine when the Senate could properly act on his nominees.
GOP = All show, and no “Go”...
If the President appointed Holder, isn’t it a Conflict of Interest to rule on crimes the President may commit?
we’ll get a couple of emotionless boring speeches on the floor and the shut up as we always do.
I am so pissed off with the GOP, their backing of Rino’s, letting Dems vote in our primaries, DEMS , KOOKS, NON REPUBLICANS ELECTING OUR CANDIDATE.
letting non republicans run on our ticket
Having a north east small state with an open primary set off the primaries
never calling out this corrupt biased media
letting the same media do our frigging debates, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOUT?
Talk radio never getting active and never informing their listeners and viewers like Hannity of mentioning social conservative issues due to them being cowardly.
The GOP/Romney and Paul now looking at absentee ballots in our first closed primary which has photo ID, how convenient they get around the closed primary and photo ID
I can’t write what I really think on here due to being banned so I’ll leave it with Screw em
It has no weight. The DOJ does not represent the office of the President. Where is the Solicitor General?
Able Danger ping---
My guess is that Grassley will do what he has done in the past: He'll issue a press statement and hide under his desk like he did when Curt Weldon tried to stand up for LTC Anthony Shaffer and the Able Danger Team that was being hung out to dry by the liberals who were protecting Jamie Gorelick creator of "the wall". Of course the congress had to go silent to aid the 9/11 commission and their cover up of Gorelick's activities. They wouldn't have wanted her work for the Clintons to get looked at and have someone ask why she was moved over to Fannie Mae where she made $26MILLION in five years. - Not bad for government work, eh?
Uh Oh, someone didn't get the memo, we can't criticize capitalism anymore.
“Grassley hinted at Senate “action to check and balance” the president’s power grab....”
Let me give you a “hint” at exactly what Grassley will do... Nuttin! or next to it.
And every time little bammy is let off the hook, every time he is allowed to flip the bird to American Citizens, every time he pizzes on The Constitution and is not restrained in any way he will, by the very nature of his mental illness, simply get worse, demand more and respond to the rule of law less.
He should be walked out on at the SOTU, each and every one holding a copy of The Constitution up for all to see and SCJ's turn their backs to him.
In front of all the damn cameras.
Then assemble outside of the United States Capitol to record a statement as a group, to be released to all news services, CSpan and the entirety (unedited) placed on Youtube, INCLUDING shots of all the news services that record it.
In it address each point of his lawless alleged "Presidency" and close it by stating if the Democrat Party wishes to retain any shred of credibility they will immediately engage a bi-partisan impeachment and subsequently remove him from office on conviction on those charges.
Of course most of the "republicans" are nothing more than career blabbermouths and can barely identify what State they are in at any given moment.
Few if any of the communists will even whisper a single work of opinion to His High Holiness, The One, Hussein Barri Shabazzz WTF The Magnificent even if they had a flamethrower pointed at them connected to a tanker full of nitro-based racing fuel.
Therefore what SHOULD be a fairly simple bitch-slap to the Poofter-in-Chief will not only never happen, Richard Cordray will probably be issued a hand written apology from Bone-head hizself.
And all the while the GOP just "can't understand" why they are flat broke.
.
OK, Sen. Grassley grow a set of stones and do something about it or just STFU. Cry me a river why don’t you.
“Does it have anything to do with Daley quitting?”
Could be. The timing certainly seems to suggest that possibility. I get the sense that Daley wanted to play things “safer” (relative term) going forward, and Obozo and his inner circle wanted to march ahead with this with ultra-totalitarian thing that he’s doing now. Daley, from his experience, probably told him it was a bad idea that would ultimately backfire on him, and Obama the narcissist didn’t listen and got mad, so Daley said enough of this.
That’s my guess, anyways.
Fannie Mae isn’t capitalism any more than any other government agency. They’re all based on stolen taxpayer money, not capitalism.
Where’s Boehner to cut the funding hence forth?
In the sense that she worked for an enterprise and earned a salary, it is.
The Senate and the House better do something before Barry declares himself President for life and suspends the elections. Why not? He never gets his chain jerked for anything else.
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