I wouldn't call this breaking news, but I found a Bloomberg article quoting Chuck Grassley, Republican Senator from Iowa, about blocking future nominations to retaliate for last week's recess appointments.
Don't know whether to file this under 'ooh, I'm scared,' 'you'll all be campaigning anyway,' or 'this differs from 2009-2011 how?'
Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said today he prefers first seeking some Senate Democrats to join in a public pushback to Obama’s four recess appointments Jan. 4, including the installation of Richard Cordray as the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Short of that, Grassley said, Republicans may have to go it alone with tough actions that could include holding up pending nominations from a Senate confirmation vote.
While I imagine Grassley won't have much trouble finding a few Democrats in the Senate conservative enough to get used as show pieces in a statement of sham-bipartisanship, could he find enough to impress anyone? Also, no word on whether he said this with a straight face:
“We have got to stand our ground,” Grassley said in an interview. “You can’t let a president who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution go around the Constitution. That’s what the checks and balances are.”
Sure, standing your ground on pro forma sessions that seek to fulfill the letter of the law regarding Congress being in session, while clearly violating the spirit of it...even to the point that Grassley himself admits it. If you're in session like you say, you shouldn't have to wait for two more weeks of fund-raising (er, vacationing? hibernation? a meditation retreat on Korriban?) to get together about it.
Grassley said Senate Republicans will determine their course of action after the Senate returns the week of Jan. 23.
This may be a fight that the Obama administration loses in the end, but it's a battle worth waging, and campaigning on. If the people don't like the dysfunctional, do-nothing federal government, they need look no further than the likes of Chuck Grassley & co. for the most blame-worthy party.