420 House bills sitting. 110 Obama nominees waiting for confirmation. http://www.salon.com/news/politics/.../politics/war_room/2010/10/06/senate_inaction
I'm not so concerned about the bills, but Obama should just appoint a bunch of the nominees during this recess and move on already.
He cut a deal with Repubs to get 54 confirmed in return for not using recess appointments... that still leaves the 110.
Well, tough. If they cannot stop him (gentleman's agreement type thing), he should do it anyway. Only suckers play by rules no one else abides by.
The essence of the deal is that the Senate will stay "in session" so there will technically be no recess.
Ah. Well that obviously changes things. Now I would venture to state that was a stupid deal for Obama to make.
The House and Senate are such massive contrasts. In the House, the minority party literally sits there and twiddles its thumbs. The Rules Committee basically makes it so that you cant propose amendments or bring up bills to the floor. In the House a bill can be voted on and the speaker can literally take his or her time to certify it in order to get members of the house to change their vote. In fact during the medicare drug bill, the vote initially failed so Republicans kept up lawmakers until 4 AM to convince them through sleep deprivation and constant pestering (along with some concessions in terms of pork) to switch their vote. Meanwhile the democrats just had to sit there and watch as it happened without any recourse. Meanwhile in the Senate the minority party has the ability to essentially put anything on hold with a filabuster unless the majority has a solid supermajority.
Now, it's only 109 confirmations waiting on Republicans... The Good Lloyd misses the point. A name change wouldn't make a difference since Repubs have decided to do everything possible to break the Senate, delay appointments, and cripple the Obama administration.
I wouldn't place all of the blame on the Republicans. I don't know the numbers, but I do know a story. Close to home, respected Democrat Jefferson County Criminal Court Judge John Stevens was nominated by President Obama for US Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. He's a Democrat who has overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle. Both Texas Senators, as well as Congressmen Chet Edwards and Ted Poe supported his nomination. He would have been a slam dunk for confirmation. The Democratic Senate refused to put his confirmation on the docket until more controversial nominations were voted on. After several of the Democrats stonewalling on a great nominee because the Republicans were filibustering questionable nominees, Judge Stevens withdrew his name from consideration, and from what I heard was disgusted by the whole process. By playing politics, Democrats ensured that a well-qualified nominee, and one of their own, would not serve the Federal government.
