In their continuing protest and open rebellion against the presidency of Barack Obama, Republicans, who have obstructed the President on a whole slew of items, from legislation that would help to create jobs, to the appointment of heads to run important governmental agencies, to judicial nominees, have demonstrated a ceaseless effort to not only wage a war to block the President in real time, but also to obstruct him retroactively.
In terms of the President’s appointments, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), has starkly disclosed the Republicans’ effectiveness in being able to legislatively cripple this President.
“In the history of the United States, 168 presidential nominees have been filibustered, 82 blocked under President Obama, 86 blocked under all the other presidents"
Reid’s statement is underlined by one of the most stunning pieces of statistical graphs that I have ever seen.
Faced with this voracious unyielding onslaught of obstructionism through most of his administration, like a mugging in broad day light, the President has been forced, in some cases, to usher through his candidates for important governmental positions through the means of recess appointments.
Today, the Supreme Court struck down appointments the President has made through this device.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed a finding that President Barack Obama's recess appointments were unconstitutional.
Obama made the appointments to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last year while the Senate was conducting "pro-forma" sessions. It is understood that legislators will not actually conduct business during a pro forma session, which came into vogue during the administration of George H.W. Bush and has been used since by both parties. In practice, the Senate is gaveled to order, then immediately adjourned.
With three of five slots on NLRB vacant during a pro forma session in January 2012, Obama appointed Deputy Labor Secretary Sharon Block, labor lawyer Richard Griffin and NLRB counsel Terence Flynn to the board.
Senate Republicans had been blocking consideration of two of these nominations. The D.C. Circuit last year deemed the appointments invalid while looking at the challenge to a labor board finding brought by Noel Canning, a soft drink bottler in the Pacific Northwest. Affirming that decision Thursday, the essentially unanimous Supreme Court said that "the president lacked the power to make the recess appointments here at issue."
A Pew Research paper, published in January, revealed that President Obama had utilized the process of recess appointments less than 40 times during the run of his entire presidency to avoid the Republican Party’s historical obstructionism:
So far, Obama has made recess appointments 32 times, according to a Feb. 2013 analysis by the Congressional Research Service. Among the last four presidents, Ronald Reagan made the most recess appointments (232), followed by George W. Bush (171), Bill Clinton (139) and George H.W. Bush (78), who served only one term. These include not only ones made between sessions of Congress, but ones during recesses within a session.
Let me reemphasize this: Ronald Reagan 232, George W. Bush 171, Bill Clinton 139, George H. W. Bush 78 (serving one term) and Barack Obama 32.
This is beyond infuriating and if I might take a moment to rant:
I remember years ago elders relating the ordeal Jackie Robinson endured in becoming the first African American to enter the ranks of players in major league baseball, and I found it hard to believe that a world could stand watch while an individual endured such unbelievable standards of duplicity.
But the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama has brought this specter into stark reality, because it is clear that this President, yes, this President, unlike any other President in history, must be stopped or even humiliated at all cost.
For though he has provided healthcare to tens of millions of individuals, though he has saved the economy from the wrecking pit in which it was lodged by his predecessor, though he has contributed to the betterment of people across wide spectrums, such as through the repealing of DADT, to the focus on issues important to Women, and the addressing of unfair sentencing laws in our prisons, as well as many other fronts that have made the lives of those who elected him better, Barack Obama, his opponents and detractors would have you believe, is a supposed "force of destruction" and a "betrayer of America".
Therefore it is important that he is stopped, it is important that he is obstructed, and it is important that he is humiliated and demeaned as a “lawless” President “who is worse than Bush” and who, his opponents will cry, to anyone who will listen, is without equal in his desire to subvert the laws of this nation.
How many recess appointments have other Presidents made compared to President Obama again? And why did the engines of social justice neglected to rescind these past “infractions”? It is unimportant, for, you see, they weren’t Barack Obama….
Nevertheless...the eyes of history are wide open.