Doubtful. I don’t see the Senate willingly giving up power.
It’s that versus defying Trump and defying Trump has been a loser pretty much across the board for those who have tried in the republican party.
Interestingly, a person who gets the job via a recess appointment is not paid (they do not collect a salary). And, IIRC, that person still needs to be approved by the senate eventually (within two years I think).
And, given that the senate still needs to approve (eventually) we could imagine a case where republicans lose the senate in 2026 and then democrats can disapprove. (Although I suspect if that happened the lame duck senate of republicans would fast-track approval of all nominees…makes for good political theater though).
Looks like it’s more in the “normal and customary” category.
From an article about this in the NYT (gift link)
Representative Michael Guest, Republican of Mississippi and the chairman of the Ethics Committee, suggested in comments to reporters that he was not inclined to release the investigative findings now that Mr. Gaetz has resigned.
“Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued,” Mr. Guest said.
I don’t know. But I just read an article implying that if either the House or Senate vote, by simple majority, for a recess, that would be enough for Trump to get his needed ten days:
Mike Johnson must block Trump’s scheme on recess appointments
As I put in one of these threads, I’m also thinking that Trump could appoint Gaetz to some other Justice Department job – one the president appoints without need for senate confirmation – and then shift Gaetz to acting AG 90 days later.
Turning a long-existing democracy into a dictatorship is very hard work and takes time. I’m a little encouraged by news reports obviously based on Trumpworld leaks to the media. Trump still does not have a reliable team.
That’s what thwarted him in his first term. He means to fix that problem. Whether he will succeed remains to be seen but it seems he has a good shot at it this time.
So today, in addition to RFK Jr. as Health Secretary we got:
Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota at the Dept. of Interior. Expect oil wells in the Grand Canyon.
Todd Blanche, DJT’s defense attorney, as Deputy AG. He at least is a lawyer and was a supervising federal prosecutor in Manhattan. So not an outright awful choice. Kind of in the Rubio at State category I guess.
And there’s talk of Lara Trump filling Rubio’s Senate seat. That should be a laugh.
Not nearly that normal. (I know, Rubio was Tea Party, so not totally normal.)
Blanche quit his law firm to take Trump’s case. As someone who believes attorneys have a responsibility to represent unpopular clients, I can see doing something like that myself, were I a lawyer. But I absolutely cannot see then taking a job that requires carrying out my vindictive client’s orders.
.
My thinking was more in terms of at least more qualified for the job than a numb nuts like Gaetz.
I get that Blanche is far from ideal. No one DJT will pick will be ideal.
And not one of them qualified to be Notary Sojak.
Mike Huckabee - Ambassador to Israel.
Misread that as Led Zeppelin, who really would be a better choice.
Not sure how many of them are still alive. Still, a better choice.
Kakistocracy works in South Africa, “kak” is precisely “shit” but also shares the various conotations, eg, I kakked my pants, I stood in dog kak, the USA elected a kak president.
Kak like that.
Trump can’t do that (legally, anyway) because the Federal Vacancies Act provides that:
- by default, “the first assistant to the office” becomes the acting officer.
- the President may direct a person currently serving in a different Senate-confirmed position to serve as acting officer.
- the President can select a senior officer or employee of the same executive agency who is equivalent to a GS-15 or above, if that employee served in that agency for at least 90 days during the 365 days preceding the end of the previous Senate-confirmed officeholder’s service.
So under that last bullet, only senior employees who served during Merrick Garland’s last year in office would be eligible to be named acting. It also caps how long an individual may serve in an acting capacity at 210 days. This became an issue in Trump’s first term when Chad Wolf exceeded this limit as Acting DHS Secretary.
Unsurprisingly, the law was written specifically to forestall the sort of endruns around Senate confirmation being envisioned by the current Administration. Whether it will be effective in doing so depends on how far Trump is willing to push it and what the courts decide.
Majority Leader John Thune: this is your Profiles in Courage moment. All you have to do is not cave in to Trump’s demand and recess. Should be the easiest show of “courage” ever.
Then, we’ll have actual hearings on this clown show. Perhaps one or two of the most egregious abuses might get shot down.
Lol. Are you new here?
I honestly think that if there are no recess appointments, Gaetz won’t make it.
This i agree with if only because NOBODY likes Gaetz. He’s less popular than Cruz and that takes effort.
This is the one thing that makes me think House Republicans won’t go along with the “force a dispute with the Senate on adjournment and let Trump recess them both” gambit. Lots of House Republicans HATE Gaetz, he hates them back, and they would be loath to have him in a position where he could launch investigations and prosecutions of them.
Weren’t pro-forma sessions => preventing recess appointments a bad thing when used against Democratic presidents?
I don’t know, were they?