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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Thank Speaker Boehner for Blocking Obama Recess Appointments

You need to call Speaker Boehner’s office right now at 202-225-0600 and thank him for the extraordinary step he took this week to slow down President Obama’s radical agenda.

With the Obama legislative agenda stalled, the left has turned its attention toward using the Executive power to accomplish their socialist goals. The key to this strategy is to the pack agencies, boards, and commissions such as the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with leftists like Craig Becker and Elizabeth Warren who will advance the collectivist agenda, regardless of whether there is any legal authority to do so.

The Senate has blocked several of the more radical nominees, but under the Constitution, President Obama has the power to appoint them during a Congressional recess.

Republican Senators warned Obama not to use his recess powers to appoint Becker to the NLRB. He did it anyhow. Becker didn’t disappoint, leading the NLRB to accuse Boeing of violating workers rights by opening a plant in South Carlolina.

Observers expect him to appoint leftists to the Obamacare Independent Payment Advisory Board, they expect him to appoint liberal Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve Board, along with Warren, Becker, and a host of other leftwing radicals. He can even recess appoint Federal judges to rubber stamp his agenda until the end of the Congress.

Obama needs two things in order to do this – (1) a pen (or, I suppose, an autopen), and a (2) a Senate recess. The Constitution is unclear how long a recess is required. Most constitutional scholars say ten days is the minimum. However, there is almost universal agreement among scholars that a recess of less than three days does not trigger the recess appointment power. In 2007, Reid held “pro-forma” Senate sessions every three days, which successfully prevented Bush from making recess appointments.

Which brings us to another provision in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 5 says “Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days[.]”. This means that without the consent of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, the Senate cannot adjourn for more than three days, and thus President Obama cannot make any recess appointments.

On Wednesday, 20 Senators led by David Vitter and Jim DeMint wrote a letter to Speaker Boehner asking him to use his authority under Article 1, Section 5 to block the recess appointments.

On Friday, the Examiner reported that Speaker Boehner did not pass a resolution giving the Senate permission to adjourn. Therefore, as he did in 2007, Harry Reid will convene pro-forma sessions today, on Tuesday May 31, and on Friday June 3rd, in order to block his own President from doing recess appointments.

Reid was forced to do this because of the leadership of Speaker Boehner. We must thank our Speaker.

Call Speaker Boehner at 202-225-0600 and thank him for his leadership.

Tell him to continue to refuse to allow the Senate to adjourn for the remainder of the Obama Presidency.

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COMMENTS

  • gekster

    Lets give him praise for getting one right.

  • jlsankot

    to hear some positive news. I will be calling this AM to give my positive reinforcement when his office opens.

  • caliray

    I didn’t know about this Constitutional provision. How refreshing to see Constitutional provisions being used as a tool to govern and slow down Obama’s push toward socialism.

    Never underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs by facts.
    Economist Henry Rosovsky

    We’re raising a whole generation who regard facts as more or less optional.
    Economist Thomas Sowell on Human Events

  • http://www.FranBaker.com frankieb

    Thanks for the head’s-up.

  • Green_Lantern

    Left message with a hearty pat on the back. We need to continue to put the screws to these guys, not worry about whether someone in the media is going to express their like or dislike of us.

  • cbondi

    Just called his office and gave him my Thanks for standing firm on this issue. Also asked him to stand firm on spending cuts, to stop this president from further harming this country. I thanked him for all his efforts.

  • http://www.helpawhiteguy.com livefreenh

    thank you Erick for pointing this out. I will call the (202) number as soon as I hit “Post comment”.

    Thanks again.

  • aldutt9mm

    boehner got it right this time please keepthe ball rolling…

  • ihateliberals

    How else could he get anything right? Either tht or he just didn’t know what he was doing. Praise him all you want but one but one right thing doesn’t make up for the RINO that he is. I am a hardcore Conservative Republican and there is no room for RINO’s in my Party.

  • ihateliberals

    Boehner to get him to do this. This is something he should have been the leader on. Anyone can be a follower it takes something to be a leader and Boehner doesn’t have that. I’m sure Pelosi was allover this When Bush ws President. harry Reid didn’t have to send her a letter. I’m glad he read the letter and did something but I’m still not all tinkly with excitement over Boehner.

  • ag8tor

    Glad he finally stepped up. It’s way past time for that but it’s nice to see some backbone for a change. Maybe if he gets enough credit he’ll contnue to take the steps necessary to slow this conspiracy down. There has never been a more despicable group in the US government than this administration! Wonder why we didn’t see this on CNN or PMSNBC.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    He always appreciates it when people like you try to stop-thrust any and all attempts to give the GOP any positive feedback .

    Moe Lane

    PS: Consider this comment to be a IQ test, personalized just for you. Don’t flunk it.

  • earlgrey

    and I imagine it won’t stop most other Red State activists (activists not readers).

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Reid didn’t need Pelosi to do this. I’d explain, but I doubt you’d get it since you didn’t the first time.

  • bobandruth2416

    You missed something….he DID ‘git-er-done’.
    Gotta’ read the whole piece!

  • Gmac

    surprised and calling in just a moment to leave a positive message of congratulations for the speakers action.

  • johnt

    they’re always in a rush, no patience at all. They can’t just enjoy a slow death for their hate object, it’s got to be hurry, hurry. More so in O’s case and the cannibals around him. O never made it to adulthood, consequently he violates the statutory age requirements for the office he slimes de facto if not de jure.
    Thanks Speaker Boehner. Keep it up.
    And I hope O enjoyed his golf outing yesterday, it must have been tough after all those earlier ceremonies.

  • blarman

    Want to know why the liberals win so many elections? It’s because they are willing to elect someone who isn’t their perfect candidate. Conservatives are idealists.

    The problem is that there is only one “perfect” candidate, and He isn’t in the race. So we have to take someone else: a flawed mortal.

    I think that one of the biggest problems we as conservatives have is that we can’t give praise unless someone is 100%. We need to reverse this trend and give praise to anyone and everyone who is at least trying to do something right. We need more positive feedback and less negative feedback to encourage our leaders. Yes, we know what is right to do, but it takes courage sometimes to do the right thing. Let’s help each other out and be a little less harsh on each other.

  • cestmoi312

    Just called Boehner’s office with an “Atta Boy”
    Maybe some positive reinforcement will cause him to grow a pair.
    But don’t forget, one “Aw S–t wipes out a thousand “Atta Boys”.

  • http://nerds4cain.com brookhaven

    We should be thanking the Tea Party movement. Without them lighting a fire under the GOP, it would have been business as usual (GOP go-along-get-along) with the same old excuse (the president should be able to appoint whoever he wants).

    These powers were given to congress for a reason: as a check to balance the power of the president.

  • http://nerds4cain.com brookhaven

    We should be thanking the Tea Party movement. Without them lighting a fire under the GOP, it would have been business as usual (GOP go-along-get-along) with the same old excuse (the president should be able to appoint whoever he wants).

    These powers were given to congress for a reason: as a check to balance the power of the president.

  • ihateliberals

    and I hate RINO’s almost as much as Liberals. Neither one of them is worth a damn. I have been a Conservative Republican since i was just a little guy and started voting 63 years ago. I have never voted tor a Democrat and i never will.

    John Boehner is not fit to lead the Republican Party and guess what ???? He isn’t leading it at all. He gets this one thing right and WaHoo all of a sudden he is a hero. I am so glad that he did this but I still can’t get that warm and fussies for him to lead the House to the 2012 elections. Then I actually would like to see him gone and a Speaker that has some balls take his place and God forbid that it would be a Democrat.

  • ihateliberals

    so I am sorry for that but it still doesn’t change my mind about Boehner. He is a RINO and I hate them as much as I do Democrats.

  • ihateliberals

    negative column and 1 in the positive column. He has a ways to go to raise that positive number.

  • cja99

    can just turn around and appoint the sleaze anyway during recess? I wonder what all the czars are up to…..more ways to make America “hit bottom” I’m sure! The country is going down the tubes thanks to them.

  • ihateliberals

    there isn’t much difference in either. This is not about just winning elections it si about doing the right thing. If you don[‘t have someone that stands hard on the conservative principles then you might as well have a liberal. The reason the so many liberals have won n the past few years is RINO’s in teh Republican Party. We lost the independent voters and Micheal Steele in as much told us Conservatives to go to Hell so they stayed at home. Thus you end up with a George W Bush RINO and then and Un-American Obama. It is time fo the Party to get some Balls and put these Progressive Liberals out and that can’t be done with compromising away the store. Democrats only want to compromise when they are losing, otherwise no deal.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …thing that I’ve read this morning, up to and including Weiner’s explanation of why he’s not calling in the FBI to investigate people ‘hacking’ his account and posting pictures of some guy’s genitals.

    Whatever, neighbor.

  • patryott

    be the enemy of the ‘better’ or we’ll keep getting beat. I’ll call to thank him, and hope it helps buoy him up to bigger and better things. I’m sure most of them need some encouragement, and they should know when they’ve done something we like. I despise all progressives, and think they should be charged with treason, then publicly flogged and ‘ex-patriot-ed’ to drift upon the sea of no country to call home. Been reading RedState for some time now, keep up the good work, thanks. **==

  • http://practicalgopvoter.blogspot.com/ texasproud

    I am sorry, but it is about winning elections. RINO is a phrase that gets thrown out more than it should. If someone does one thing that some people, who have annointed themselves as the sole arbiter of who can call themselves a conservative, disagree with, they are automatically shamed with those four letters as if everything else they have done is irrelevant. See the big picture. For all of the imperfections of McCain, if he was President right now, Government-Run Healthcare, Stimulus package, Auto Bailouts for the UAW never happen, nor do the appointments of Sotomayor or Kagan to the Supreme Court. I am not saying we don’t hold our elected officials accountable, but if you can’t see the difference between the two sides then I worry about you.

  • http://practicalgopvoter.blogspot.com/ texasproud

    I am sorry, but it is about winning elections. RINO is a phrase that gets thrown out more than it should. If someone does one thing that some people, who have annointed themselves as the sole arbiter of who can call themselves a conservative, disagree with, they are automatically shamed with those four letters as if everything else they have done is irrelevant. See the big picture. For all of the imperfections of McCain, if he was President right now, Government-Run Healthcare, Stimulus package, Auto Bailouts for the UAW never happen, nor do the appointments of Sotomayor or Kagan to the Supreme Court. I am not saying we don’t hold our elected officials accountable, but if you can’t see the difference between the two sides then I worry about you.

  • ellemae

    I did the same.

  • kenchely

    Boehner’s no RINO. There are very few true RINO’s left. Those who would call Boehner a RINO must not be old enough to remember John Lindsay, Lowell Weicker, Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Ed Brooke, Frank Sargeant, Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Kuchel, etc.. THOSE were RINO’s. In our time, Michael Bloomberg, before he left the GOP, was a RINO. Lincoln Chafee was a RINO. In the last ten years, a number of RINO’s have left. Basically, at this point there are almost no Republicans left of center any more. Probably the last was Mike Castle. The left-most Republicans now are dead-center types like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and a handful of others.

  • kenchely

    Boehner’s no RINO. There are very few true RINO’s left. Those who would call Boehner a RINO must not be old enough to remember John Lindsay, Lowell Weicker, Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Ed Brooke, Frank Sargeant, Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Kuchel, etc.. THOSE were RINO’s. In our time, Michael Bloomberg, before he left the GOP, was a RINO. Lincoln Chafee was a RINO. In the last ten years, a number of RINO’s have left. Basically, at this point there are almost no Republicans left of center any more. Probably the last was Mike Castle. The left-most Republicans now are dead-center types like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and a handful of others.

  • riverking

    …if you lose elections to the left?

  • davidmadison

    I called. I thanked. I approved.