to a special session to elect me king!
Posted on 08/01/2008 5:13:51 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
On 27 occasions, presidents have called both houses into session to deal with a crisis. The most recent of these special sessions -- and the first one since 1856 -- met at the behest of President Harry S. Truman on this day in 1948.
With less than four months remaining before Election Day, Truman's approval rating stood at 36 percent. His GOP opponent, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, looked like a sure winner.
So in search of a bold political gesture, the president turned to the provision in the Constitution that allows the president "on extraordinary occasions" to convene one or both houses of Congress. And Congress at that time was controlled by the GOP.
In accepting the Democratic presidential nomination at 1:45 a.m. in a stifling Philadelphia convention hall, Truman stunned delegates by calling on the Republican majority to live up to its party platform by passing laws that bolstered civil rights, extended Social Security and created a national health care program. "They can do this job in 15 days if they want to do it," he said.
Republicans reacted with scorn. Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-Mich.) said, "No good can come to the country from a special session of Congress which obviously stems solely from political motives." Nevertheless, some key GOP figures -- including Vandenberg -- favored action to widen the party's electoral appeal.
The gesture went only so far when Sen. Robert Taft (R-Ohio), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, accused Truman of abusing his presidential prerogatives and blocked all votes.
That decision presented Truman with a campaign theme: He railed against the "do-nothing 80th Congress." Against all odds, Truman went on to win in November in a four-way race against Dewey, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and former Vice President Henry Wallace.
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If the republicans wanted, they could put a stop to that by keeping a person in the room to call for an absense of a quorum. That would force all the senators to come back.
But the republican senators don’t want to come back either.
to a special session to elect me king!
My feelings exactly.
Pres. Bush is guilty of dereliction of duty in this matter. GM and Ford are going broke. The airlines are barely solvent. People will not be able to afford Christmas presents and buy gas to go to work. I think this qualifies as a crisis for our economy.
Sure, he might think this will be a good issue in the campaign, but the GOP should put the country ahead of politics. They would be heroes to US voters if they could get something done to bring relief at the gas pump.
Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
A special session alone would be enough to kick oil under 100 per barrel.
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