William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

Here’s what the teaser said on the front of CNN.com: “Senate meets for 11 seconds to thwart Bush.”

Isn’t that nice? Isn’t something to continue to strive for? Thwarting Bush? Let’s give a test, which headline would you rather have:

1. Senate thwarts Bush

2. Senate caves to Bush demands.

Now, if you picked No. 2, congratulations, you’re a Democrat currently serving as a Representative or a Senator. Because there has and continues to be ways to achieve No. 1 on a consistent basis. Sadly, most of what the majority party has done is give us a steaming pile of No. 2.

“Webb opens, closes vacant Senate session”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Senate was called to order for 11 seconds on Wednesday as the last political scuffle of the year between the White House and the Democratic-led Congress played out.

Democratic senators will hold short “pro forma” sessions over the holiday break to prevent recess appointments.

Nearly all the senators left the Capitol for the Christmas holiday last week, but Democrats are keeping the Senate in session to block President Bush from making any recess appointments — a constitutional mechanism that allows the president, during congressional recesses, to fill top government posts for up to one year without Senate confirmation.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, opened and then immediately gaveled the Senate session to a close. He spent 57 seconds in the chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced December 19 that he would keep the Senate open with a series of “pro forma” sessions through mid-January.

Talks had just broken down with the White House on a deal that would have allowed the president to make dozens of those appointments if he agreed not to appoint one controversial official, Steven Bradbury, as the permanent head of the influential Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.

Bush declined to accept the Democrats’ offer, and Reid refused to approve Bradbury because of concerns about his involvement in crafting legal opinions for the administration on interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects.

Similar sessions were conducted over the Thanksgiving recess.

So you see, they know how to do it. They just need to start making this a trend. Because a Joe Dimaggioesque 56-day thwarting streak would do the country some good right about now.

–WKW

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.