Posted on 07/07/2010 11:36:13 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
In announcing the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- and two other nominees -- today President Obama said in a statement that “It’s unfortunate that at a time when our nation is facing enormous challenges, many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes.”
That claim is reasonably true for the other two nominees given recess appointments today.
Republicans long objected to the nomination of Philip Coyle, now the associate director for National Security and International Affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, because of Coyle's opposition to missile defense.
-snip-
Unmentioned by the president: the senator who had put a hold on Gotbaum’s nomination was Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who put a hold on Gotbaum’s nomination in May because of the way Gotbaum’s former employer Delphi Corp. dealt with pensioned former employees.
But it’s not the case with Berwick, whose recess appointment is getting most of the attention.
-snip-
You can argue – and White House officials and Senate Democrats are, in fact, doing so – that Democrats were delaying Berwick’s hearing and the vote on his nomination because Republicans were going to play politics with it.
But a) that’s not the same as delaying or obstructing his nomination and b) some might argue that there’s also something to be said about combating policy arguments with better policy arguments.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
The dems don’t want this dirt out there. That’s why they wouldn’t bring the nominations up. Probably the same reason for allot of the others too.
The list, ping
Sero is a coward and knew Berwick would get dinged but some big money must have changed hands to have Berwick in the post, so he was desperate!
So, the recess appointment was just to evade the confirmation process not to overcome Republican obstacles. Yet, again Obama changes and disregards the constitution to hide what he’s doing.
The spineless Republicans could force this disgusting POS Berwick through the gauntlet by threatening a Kagan filibuster. Can’t they ever play hardball?
Why Bother? The appt. is only good till January,and Congress will be decidedly more (R) then.
It’s good if Berwick would only stay until January. However, we could use the renewed attention to the health care issue. This Berwick would be an excellent whipping boy. The talk of death panels would re-emerge and grandma would put on her tennis shoes and sprint to the polls.
Nothing short of an absolute dictatorship will please the Annointed One.
Obama Lied, Transparency Died.
Just curios, did Obama play a part as a member of the senate in delaying either a hearing or an up-and-down vote on any of W’s appointments?
I don't know. A Senator from a nominees home state can "blue slip" any nominee (except for DC Circuit & SCOTUS nominees), and it is supposed to be secret, so it may not even be possible to know the answer to your question to any great certainty.
Obama did vote no against John Roberts and Sam Alito.
pretty sure he participated in senate dem filibusters on several of W’s nominees as well.
Someone send a memo to Tapper: “No!”
Yes, he at a minimum filibustered Miguel Estrada for the DC Circuit and John Bolton for UN Ambassador. I'm sure there were others.
What an absolute hypocrite. He and his senate croonies did everything they could to keep Bush from making recess appointments and he throws a fit because the GO wants the same consideration? Another reason to remove this man from office.
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