Or are you suggesting that both houses of Congress voted to remove from the appointment process positions that weren’t subject to it? Interesting vote that would be. Not that DC isn’t batty enough – just an odd thought that they might do so

I’m getting this response other places as well – it only applies to lesser offices. Which misses the point. It’s still an abdication of responsibility given by the Constitution. There are all sorts of minor offices which DON’T require confirmation. That’s one of the things which marks them as minor. Just because these aren’t top tier offices in the confirmation process doesn’t give us a pass to make them insignificant.

Further, there are better ways to eliminate them from the need for confirmation than to exclude them. from the list. Why not simply eliminate the position? From what I hear, many of them have been unfilled for some time. Why not eliminate the department and actually shrink government? Why not check for redundancy and fold a couple of departments together?

That the decision should be to abdicate – essentially refuse to do what the Constitution asks them to do – in a matter large or small – ought to be troubling at the very least. We all understand that it’s the small and anonymous actions that are better measures of character and intent than the large, public ones.

By the way, the Speaker does not usually vote anyway.