How Banana Republics Are Created
President Obummer has nominated a whack job named Richard Cordray to head the “new” Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, but those mean Republicans have been holding up his confirmation until small details like
oversight and accountability are addressed.
Still, some inside the Capitol are predicting that a “recess” appointment of Cordray to head this Bureau may come as
early as January 4th.
“We have been hearing consistently from the Senate offices that the President is considering a recess appointment
of Richard Cordray along with a slew of other controversial nominees in the brief period between the two sessions of
Congress,” a key Senate source said. “Now we are hearing from Senior Democrat staffers that something big is
coming tomorrow [Jan 4].”
Now, Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides the president with the power to “fill up all Vacancies that may
happen during the Recess of the Senate.”
The problem for Obummer and his liberal buddies is that the Senate has not recessed and technically remains in
session, albeit in “pro forma” session. Never before has a President appointed anyone while congress is in pro
forma session.
Furthermore, the vacancy didn't "happen" in the absence of a Session of Congress. There have been several
“sessions” while the vacancy existed, meaning that even the Democrat liberal-controlled Senate refused to take up
confirmation of Obummer’s nominee.
But, liberal groups are pressing the White House to stack key government positions with radicals ready to carry out
an anti-business, pro-big labor regulatory agenda. Liberals keep referring to “The Roosevelt Option” (coined from
the actions of Teddy Roosevelt who in the split-second between two congressional sessions of Congress in 1903,
made more than 100 recess appointments) saying that the 2012 Congress will need to move from the First Session
(of this current Congress) to the Second Session, and that, as such, that fraction of a second between the sessions
is enough to qualify as a “recess”, thus triggering presidential powers.
And this is one of the least offensive options being considered. Other, more radical liberals are calling for the
president to simply invoke presidential powers never before contemplated – and certainly not written into the
Constitution- like suggesting that Obummer DECLARE the Congress in recess just like some tinhorn dictator from a
Third World country (Venezuela comes to mind.)
But even invoking the so-called “Roosevelt Option” may not solve the liberals’ problems. It appears that the statute
creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau DEMANDS that the director be confirmed by the Senate and NOT
installed by recess appointment.
Sure, true "recess appointments" have been made under false pretenses, but that doesn't mean they were proper or
appropriate – or that this one should be allowed.
So, everyone needs to understand what’s happening here: The President of the United States is planning to use an
obscure precedent to claim that a split second in time empowers him to go around Congress to appoint a director to
an agency that has broad unchecked, almost dictatorial powers to regulate business in America with little, if any,
oversight from the peoples’ representatives in Congress.
Such actions by the president should be considered an open declaration of war on constitutional principles. These
actions will completely undermine our system of checks and balances. And none of the legal or constitutional
arguments may matter much, since liberals and the Obummer administration appear poised to make this outrageous
and totally unconstitutional power grab. By the time the courts work it out, the damage will have already been done.
Enough is enough. These kinds of power grabs are exactly how Banana Republics are born.