Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(Jim Young/Reuters)
After all the sputtering threats, the outrage, the requisite cries of "Unconstitutional!", the Senate Republicans are losing steam.
[W]hen it comes to waging war over a handful of obscure recess appointments, the Senate GOP is struggling with how to respond.
They fear a knock-down, drag-out fight is exactly what the White House wants — and that President Barack Obama would use such a battle to ratchet up his campaign against a dysfunctional and gridlocked Congress. The internal debate highlights the party’s challenges, with public opinion soured on Congress and Republicans still lacking a presidential nominee to rally behind.
Ahead of a closed-door party retreat Wednesday at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, Senate Republicans suggested that they might let their business allies fight the battle over recess appointments for the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The 47-member conference didn’t reach a resolution Wednesday.
Some, like Sen. John Thune, seem to have a little fight left in them. He insists, “We all view that as a power grab by the administration consistent with other things that they’ve done since he’s been in office." Then you've got Sen. Bob Corker: “I would be surprised if you see mass reprisals [...] I just don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t think anybody is going to consider that to be a very astute or intelligent thing to do.”
What they'll probably end up doing is working with their buddies at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, goading them into suing while the Senate GOP pretends to stay out of a pissing match with the administration. That's in hopes of salvaging a scrap of approval from the public. Approval that could be trashed by the House Republicans, who are planning, of course, hearings over the issue.
Where this will really play out will be in upcoming appointments and whether they'll continue to obstruct just for the sake of gumming up the works.