Wow. There goes any hope for monetary policy... The article doesn't say how Republicans alone could block the appointment w/ just 41 senators in the entire senate. How'd they get a majority on the Senate Banking Committee???
I wonder if now some wheels are starting to turn at the White House. If, now, they might start to reconsider how smart it was to leave Monetary Policy to a bunch of partisan-Republicans when they could have made these appointments 15 months ago, and whether it was smart to re-nominate a Republican inflation hawk in the midst of a liquidity trap. Now, of course, apparently the Republicans can easily block any dovish appointment with just 41 senators... I wonder if they can even grasp the importance of this.
If I were in the White House, of course, I would go on the offensive and accuse Republicans of sabotaging the economy... But that's just me.
UPDATE: Now it's come out that just one senator can send a nomination back to the White House. If I were there, I'd resubmit Diamond's application. (thanks to commenter sraffa.)
Termites in Your Cabinet
9 hours ago
This is how Diamond got sent back:
ReplyDelete" Under Senate rules, all nominations that aren’t completed before a lengthy recess go back to the White House and have to be resubmitted unless the Senate unanimously agrees to hold onto them and act later, Stewart said. Routinely, the Senate does agree to retain the nominations.
If a single senator objects, the name goes back to the president’s office. In Diamond’s case, at least one senator did that. Stewart said he didn’t know the identity of the lawmakers."
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-05/diamond-s-fed-nomination-sent-back-to-white-house.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment
ReplyDeleteI do not have much knowledge before reading this article about it but after reading the whole article I got very nice information from it.
ReplyDeletesports bra
Poor commentary. Sorry I read it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what RJS said, only, don't recess Diamond, recess appoint Jamie Galbraith, explaining that you don't want to prejudice the nomination when you resubmit.
ReplyDeleteMake it clear to the 'Phants that if they filibuster a nomination, you will recess appoint someone extreme, for example James Hoffa on the NLRB.
Let them know that obstructionism will be punished.
Lol, I love it!
ReplyDelete-TV