No, he could not block a quorum call. But adjournment for a quorum call would not itself invoke a recess. It would just force the democrats to get 50 people to show up for the next session. A “recess” is like 10 days, this is why they are doing this every few days, so they can recover if the republicans try anything.
Sure, I’d like to see them do it anyway, JUST TO MAKE the democrats show up once every 10 days. But the democrats WOULD show up if they had to, so it would just be a gesture.
BTW, I wouldn’t count on all of the republican senators supporting this action anyway — senators in general are not enamored with recess appointments, seeing it as a usurpation of their authority. So a good number of republican senators would oppose taking extraordinary steps just to provide an opportunity for the president to make a recess appointment.
If Bush wanted to make a big deal out of it, he could simply vacate the offices that aren’t appointed, and refuse to spend money or perform the work assigned to those offices, until the senate acted on his appointment. By making “acting” personnel, he takes off the pressure.
I guess the democrats could have done this to block a recess judicial appointment as well, but since you can’t do “acting” judges, the effects would be more severe.
Yeah...but I was thinking about that Quorum call.
If *all* the rest of the GOPers were waiting in the halls when the call went out..and they all came in, The acting Dem even though he would vote nay...numerically, would make the quorum complete. >Bo)