And Then There's This... Senate Considers Staying Open During Christmas To Block Bush - HuffPo\WaPo

[WillyT]

Instead of Plum Appointments, Maybe a Lump of Coal

By Al Kamen
Friday, December 14, 2007; A37

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Christmas is usually a time when controversial nominees for top federal jobs wait for Santa, in the form of the president of the United States, to come down the chimney with their recess appointments.

Maybe not this year. Word is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in order to prevent President Bush from handing out those goodies, is now thinking about keeping the Senate in session during the Christmas-New Year's break, which starts at the end of next week and continues until the Senate returns in mid- to late January.

The unusual maneuver, which Reid first used during the recent Thanksgiving vacation, would block Bush from using his constitutional power -- derived from the days when the Senate could be out of session for months -- to fill vacancies. Such appointments made now would be valid through the end of Bush's presidency.

As a practical matter, if Reid decides to keep the Senate in session, such folks as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who came in from across the river to wield the gavel during the Thanksgiving break, would once again briefly open and close the Senate twice a week, in what are called pro forma sessions.

Senate Democrats have been particularly upset over several of Bush's recess appointees, including Charles Pickering to an appeals court seat and, more recently, Republican donor and Swift Boat ad-campaign contributor Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium.

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Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/13/AR2007121302017_pf.html

I think I'm about to go :crazy:, LOL!

:shrug: