# Time for Obama to use recess appointments? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 27, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041 "2010-03-27T19:12:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/21 "2010-03-28T03:35:24Z")
I couldn’t be happier. What are the Republican’s going to do, put him on _double-secret_ probation? _Road Trip!!_ ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/22 "2010-03-28T03:51:59Z")
I’ll just copy my comments from the other thread: > [@Obama sticks thumb in GOP's eye with 15 recess appointments](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-sticks-thumb-in-gops-eye-with-15-recess-appointments/534080/2): > > Obviously, I don’t want to see the Republicans bypassed entirely. Actually, I’d like to see the Dems voted out of control of both sides of Congress. > > That noted, I don’t really have a problem with Obama using recess appointments. Both parties have gotten absolutely ridiculous about the confirmation process, going back at least as far as Robert Bork, maybe longer. As I understand it, the Senate is expected to confirm presidential appointments unless there is some demonstrable reason not to do so. As long as the nominee is at least minimally qualified for the post, a mere difference in political philosophy is not grounds to block a nomination. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/23 "2010-03-28T05:20:32Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Still vaguely curious about this. Don’t recess appointments have to happen…during Congressional Recesses? Isn’t Congress still in session (I think I heard they past some sort of Health reform bill)? Do they get off for Easter? They recessed Friday until April 12th. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/24 "2010-03-28T05:45:53Z")
Other than wondering why he waited six months, I have no problem with this. What choice did he have? ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/25 "2010-03-28T06:34:51Z")
I’m thrilled. I remember during the primaries Obama said he wanted to include the other side in the process of making policy. Clinton (rightly so, I’m sad to say), thought that was a naive position and asked him what he was going to do when they just stuck a roadblock in front of every path. He said he thought the right thing to do was try to work with the opposition, but if that doesn’t work you ultimately have to brush them aside and move forward without them\*. He’s fulfilled his obligation. There is no public option, there aren’t a lot of things he wanted in the bill, things the right wouldn’t stand for. He gave up a lot and still there wasn’t a single republican vote for the health care bill in the house. Not _one_. The right is marching in lockstep, they clearly won’t work with him. Despite losing a national election in every way possible they aren’t willing to compromise at all. It’s time to brush them aside and move forward. \*I am paraphrasing here, but it’s the general gist of the argument. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/26 "2010-03-28T12:40:22Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > But he also appointed Craig Becker, someone who every Republican wrote to Obama asking him not to appoint during the recess. You forgot to tell us the other half (what these Republicans were offering as their end of the proposed political bargain). ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/27 "2010-03-28T13:47:40Z")
Purity of essence, **Steve**. It’s _always_ purity of essence with these modern day conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/28 "2010-03-28T17:49:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Other than wondering why he waited six months, I have no problem with this. What choice did he have? Find someone the Senate is willing to confirm. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/29 "2010-03-28T17:52:59Z")
> [@DJ\_Motorbike](#): > > Find someone the Senate is willing to confirm. The problem isn’t that the Senate isn’t willing to confirm. The problem is that the nominees aren’t making it to a vote. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/30 "2010-03-28T17:58:07Z")
> [@DJ\_Motorbike](#): > > Find someone the Senate is willing to confirm. It only takes one Senator to place a hold, and often the holds have nothing to do with the person nominated, but are just so the Senator can call attention to some other issue. I suspect somewhere between most and all of the current nominees would easily be confirmed if brought to a vote, most would probably even survive a filibuster attempt. So to make it through the confirmation process, you don’t need the support of the Senate, you need the _unanimous_ support of the Senate, and they may vote against you based on things that have nothing to do with you, but because they’re having a spat with the President based on some unrelated issue. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/31 "2010-03-28T19:23:11Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I couldn’t be happier. What are the Republican’s going to do, put him on _double-secret_ probation? _Road Trip!!_ You can’t go lower then 0 votes. They are like 3 year old kicking their feet and saying they aren’t going to go out, and then having a tantrum about being left home. When the GOP reaches the maturity level of the average 7th grader (I’m not setting the bar very high here) then we can talk. It’s just like them complaining that Obama is not longer being bipartisan, or that they didn’t have a say in the health care bill after those involved in the compromise voted against it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/32 "2010-03-28T20:25:54Z")
> [@DJ\_Motorbike](#): > > Find someone the Senate is willing to confirm. It looks like there is no such person. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/33 "2010-03-28T20:43:52Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It looks like there is no such person. Sure there is. The Republicans would confirm someone if they were allowed to pick that person. But a Democratic pick is, for them, by definition unqualified and not confirmable. Leaving aside the issue that most of these blocks weren’t about the qualifications of the nominee anyway, but just a way for Republicans to continue to obstruct Obama for the sake of obstruction. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/34 "2010-03-28T22:03:12Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > just a way for Republicans to continue to obstruct Obama for the sake of obstruction. But they’re not obstructing just for the sake of obstruction, they’re obstructing for the sake of fucking Obama over and getting more of their guys elected in 2010; maybe even a second “torture president” come 2012. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/35 "2010-03-29T07:19:15Z")
Obama showed more restraint than I would have. He should have simply filled all 70+ vacancies. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041/36 "2010-03-30T04:45:40Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Bush made 171 recess appointments during his presidency. I’m sure that’s just fine to those for whom the “tone on Washington just got even more heated.” > > Seriously, what else do people expect him to do - not use the powers that have been granted to, and used by, every single other President before him? He’s supposed to somehow NOT be president, so it won’t piss people off who don’t like him anyway, and have already said multiple times that they have no intention of working with him? Well put. . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-obama-to-use-recess-appointments/534041.md?page=1)