Finally, Obama goes all in on recess appointments
Editor's note: Roland S. Martin is a syndicated columnist and author of "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House." He is a commentator for the TV One cable network and host/managing editor of its Sunday morning news show, "Washington Watch with Roland Martin."
(CNN) -- Finally.
That's all that needs to be said about President Barack Obama's decision this week to stop playing footsie with GOP senators and push through the recess appointments for the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and members of the National Labor Relations Board.
Republican are in a tizzy, saying he is establishing a bad precedent with the moves. But frankly, they need to shut up.
Roland MartinIt has been their shameful and callous actions in holding up countless presidential nominees that has led us to this precarious moment in political history.
But let's not act like the Democratic senators are standing on firm moral ground. They were also obstructionists during the final few years of President George W. Bush's second term, and they played the same game of hideaway as the Republicans are doing now, even though the GOP has taken stalling to extraordinary heights.
As for President Obama, he has played nice for far too long, unwilling to load up the administration with his nominees through the constitutionally protected avenue of recess appointments.
It's hilarious to listen to strict constructionist conservatives talk about the U.S. Constitution as a hallowed document, only to hear their chagrin when someone actually follows it.
Every president has the right to make recess appointments, and if you hear the GOP critics, you would swear Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush didn't use the power of recess appointments to fill vacancies. But they did, specifically with the National Labor Relations Board, the same group that now has three open slots that the GOP has been blocking President Obama from filling.
This is a silly, partisan game that I can't stand. Every president should be able to appoint a team to his liking. Yes, the U.S. Constitution says the U.S. Senate gets to "advise and consent," but it says nothing about holding up appointments in perpetuity.
It's shameful when a president makes an appointment and that person goes six months to nearly two years before they get a hearing or an up-and-down vote. The U.S. Senate should be able and willing to move a lot faster when filling vacancies, but the partisan divide keeps that from happening.
With President Obama in office, the GOP doesn't want to see what they describe as liberal judges appointed to the federal bench. And when there is a Republican in the White House, Democrats voice their anger at conservative judges being appointed.
Folks, that's what happens in elections. There are consequences to winning and losing.
President Obama's willingness to take on the Congress directly is a welcome departure from the reach-out-and-touch someone philosophy he operated by the last three years.
Look, I get bipartisanship -- we should have folks from both parties acting like grownups and getting along -- but if you look at the overwhelming number of Obama appointees being held up, it's clear that this system is broken.
Weakness is nothing to be happy about. And too often, President Obama has operated more on the weak and meek side when dealing with Congress rather than as a strong leader with conviction.
This decision, coupled with the far more aggressive tone he has taken with his critics, has led to an increase in his poll numbers, and is the kind of fire in the belly his supporters are happy to see.
The fear is that the president will fall back into the mode of walking softly with a big stick. Sorry, when folks are misbehaving, you have to whack them upside the head with that big stick in order for them to get the message.
The GOP can crow all day about these appointments. They are likely to lose if they challenge the president in court. Maybe their continuing intransigence will keep President Obama operating with a short fuse, ready to explode on the opposition when warranted.
Now that's a change in attitude we can believe in.
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