Obama Appointments: This Day In Pointless Obstruction

If you thought that the filibuster was the only means by which senators could engage themselves in self-indulgent and pointless political warfare, think again! There's also the hold procedure, by which individual senators can obstruct an executive branch appointment just because they feel like it.

The most recent example is the case of Tom Shannon, a former Bush State Department appointee who has been appointed to serve as the Ambassador to Brazil by President Obama. For reasons that defy understanding, Senator George LeMieux (R-Fla.) has decided to place a hold on Shannon, because, as Dave Weigel reports, he needs to "discuss [his] concerns" and "fully vet him." This follows a long hold placed on Shannon by Jom DeMint (R-S.C.), who did so in order to show his displeasure with the administration's approach to Venezuela and Honduras.

Matt Yglesias weighs in:

Neither DeMint nor LeMieux invented the abuse of the hold procedure, but the Republican Party of the 111th congress has taken this to such new heights that it's about time the Senate take some responsibility and start organizing itself like a legislative body of an important country and not like a country club. The ability for one senator to delay confirmation of key executive branch personnel indefinitely for no real reason has never been a good idea. At times, this power has been abused to advance policy goals I believe in. Oftentimes it's used to advance bad policy goals. More recently, it just seems to be being used as a matter of principle--maximum feasible obstruction. It needs to be changed.

There's a certain amount of irony involved in LeMieux placing a hold on Shannon, since LeMieux is only in the Senate because Florida Governor Charlie Crist wanted to "place a hold" on that Senate seat.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[ConservativeFrank]

And you think bushs appointments where not liberals bush was an imposter.

[jsgaetano]

Why is Obama appointing a Bushite?

We need to be kicking conservatives OUT of the government, not keeping them in.

[dmann32]

And then for his lower than average percentage of confirmed cabinet appointments the GOP will slam him for it in 2010 and 2012 . . .! But then having a jellyfish like Reid in the Senate doesn't help either . . .!

[surfrr]

Throw those darts....the Party of No....teab­aggers....­racists...­.

The bottom line is that this bill is a massive power grab....and not really about health care reform....Do you really think the government is capable of running a health care system that will provide the level and quality of care currently received by the majority of Americans?? One need to look no further than the long lines and waits (dare I say rationing) of the swine flu vaccine. Imagine the run on services that would overwhelm the system in the case of a true epidemic, and lets not forget all that red tape. Outside of the military, what does the government ever run effectively?

But back to the point. If this was truly about health care reform, I am sure you would see the majority of legislators, Rs and Ds support this bill. However, one R vote does not make a "bi-partisan" bill.

So the Party of No may not be an unfair description, but to paint the picture that its the Party of No, because they want to see American people suffer is absurd....

[mhazard]

Profits for the insurance industry and pharma trump any concern for the welfare of the people.

It seems that, somehow, quite a lot of the swine flu vaccine went to wall street. I wonder who engineered that coup.

Outside the military, the government has been running Medicare and Social Security for a long, long time without too many complaints.

One Republican vote is surely a start.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

Sigh. The government doesn't produce the swine flu vaccine, capitalist companies do. In fact, the whole vaccine situation is an argument for GREATER government involvement in health care. We came pretty close a few years ago to not having ANY vaccines available because the profit in this line of business is pretty low while the potential legal liability for any problems, real or imagined, from vaccination is enormous. (There's widespread internet claims that vaccination causes nearly every health problem except athlete's foot. What company wants to get caught up in the mess when they can make more money elsewhere?) End result was our government got involved with subsidies and liability limitations but it's still not a very desirable line of business and thus shortages continue for a variety of reasons.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

This SUPPOSEDLY non-partisan "kick everyone out" stuff comes up every time the Democrats are the majority party in Congress. When the Republicans gain control, the campaign to get rid of incumbents mysteriously disappears. Remember how few of the Republicans who took office on the pledge that they would voluntarily limit their terms actually followed through on their promise when the time came to do so.

"Vote the incumbents out" is just one more astroturf movement.

[StopMakingSense2]

I find your premise paranoid but to indulge in it for a moment considering who you think Obama would be grabbing power from YES, do it, don't think twice. The point is in any case you don't have any power and private insurance see you as something to be milked and discarded.

[SamKnause]

Good, we don't need any more appointees that worked for Bush. I thought this is what the election was all about, change. Obama continues to appoint people who worked for Bush, instead of finding qualified people who are as far away from the Bush administration as possible.

[fireW]

Pointless obstructionism? How about *mindless* obstructionism?

[sheaintsayin]

Another irresponsible, incompetent senator compensating for his vacant policy ideas by expressing his hate for President Obama, and his disdain and disregard for the American electoral process.

[rugbycoach]

Party of No=The GOP.......No ideas, no different tactics, No nothing, No anything, you go guys.

[chitowner1]

This arcane, dictatorial Senate practice needs to abolished. In fact, the 60 vote cloture rule is a convention they invented to play country club as long as possible and avoid responsibility for actually governing. I'm sick of watching a bunch of elitists holding the American people hostage with their ineffectual, childish rule making and game playing. Members of this body, if not the House, should be subject to term limits and if that doesn't work then the Senate should be abolished by constitutional amendment. It's proven to be a lousy mechanism for legislating issues critical to a democratic republic and representing the public interest in the 21st century. A pox on this arrogant, ineffective house of government - and all the corrupt people who now occupy it.

[StPeteDave]

He's a freaking temp!

[vlm1948]

There is an e-mail going around calling on everyone to vote out the incumbents whether they be Democrats or Republicans. All House of Representatives would go in the next election as well as one third of the Senators. In 2012, vote out another third of the Senate and 2014, the last third. Sounds like a good idea to me. These people are not there to serve this country. They act like junior high students with their clicks and hurt feelings. The only way we will ever get anything for the people of this country is to rise up and take it back through the electoral process.

[Littlewords]

That's your best idea? a wholesale flush?
Not press for finance reform? Not support only those working hard and working for the people?

You think a one time flush and player swap fixes things.

You need to think harder.

[CanadianBeef]

Quite right. If every Senator were voted out, the distribution of seats would reverse, and Republicans would gain a near 60-seat majority in the Senate and a majority in the House. Geez, are Democrat voters dim enough to ruin their country just to make a point? I would guess not.

[MaryT63]

What we have here is a plan to derail the democratic admin including the dems majority control of congress by the minority party (the repubs). What are the dems doing about this? It seems as the dems do not want to govern, to take responsibility for anything. They all seem to want to be 'teflon legislators'. We gave them the majority to make changes but they are not clever enough to realize they have the majority.

[satanlite]

The Party of No doing their best to do nothing at all.

[goodnews7]

Why Is Sen. Tom Coburn Holding Up Veterans' Health Care Improvements?
We recently wrote an article about the excellent Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in our series about government run health care services. You’d think that funding for a new bill that allows the VHA to provide caregiver assistance to our most wounded veterans would be a no-brainer, right? Well, apparently not as far as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is concerned. He is using a Senate technical procedure to single-handedly hold up “S.1963 – The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of [...]
http://bit.ly/1zUqtT

[msgirlintn]

That is the most absurd thing. And he calls himself a Doctor. Did you see Rachel Maddow's segment on this last night exposing him and exposing how he lied about voting for other bills that weren't paid for?

[Cambridge9]

Simple answer ---------- Because he can.

It's simply another tactic to give our President another hurdle to jump

Something to remember here. Coburn is a practicing DOCTOR. I just don't understand his thinking when his oath requires that 'He first does NO harm'. With that in mind I do believe that while he is not sitting at someone's bedside , he is doing great harm and should have his medical license pulled!

[parlimentMike]

Congress is broken and has lost it's way. The incumbents all think it is about them. WE need to demonstrate that it is about US. Turn them out in the primaries, or turn them out in the election, but these people are beyond salvage, they need to find real jobs, and WE need to get real representation.

If the new guys don't understand that we Americans created a government to make the lives of all Americans better, not just Congressmen and CEO's.

If we don't stand together and take our government back we deserve what we have been getting for too long.