From Pine View Farm

Brawl at Recess 0

When I first saw this weekend that President Obama was fed up with Republican obstructionism on appointments, my reaction was, “Good for him. Take it to them.”

Dick Polman discusses the predictable Republican reaction and sums up the Republican view of bipartisanship (emphasis added):

Naturally, the Republican response to Obama’s move was a textbook case of hypocrisy. They behaved this weekend as if Obama, by making these recess appointments, had somehow invented a whole new form of socialist-tinged tyranny – while somehow forgetting, of course, that recess appointments are encoded as an executive option in the U.S. Constitution.

(snip)

Today’s Republicans know all this; their real complaint is that Obama now seems so willing to confront them. They like him better when he extends his hand, in the spirit of bipartisanship, so that they can slap it away. . . .

(snip)

The bottom line is that elections have consequences, and any president of either party is rightly entitled to choose his own qualified team. So says the Constitution, anyway. As for Obama, he need not bother waiting for the Senate Republicans to suddenly recognize that basic right. More recess appointments will surely be necessary; as I noted here six weeks ago, there’s not much point in Obama extending his hand to people whose first instinct is to devour it and then demand his wrist and forearm for dessert.

DelawareLiberal has more on Republican bipartisanship and the one-way street.

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