Reply #6: Obama could have made a recess appt of Becker, but chose not to: [View All]

[amborin]

"In the statement, Obama said he told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday that he would make recess appointments if Republican senators did not lift their holds.

"Since that meeting, I am gratified that Republican senators have responded by releasing many of these holds and allowing to receive a vote in the Senate," Obama said.

So it's all hopey, changey, biparty. But the Senate Democrats weren't able to muster the 60 votes needed to get a vote on the nomination of labor lawyer Craig Becker to be chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. The arrival of newly elected Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) didn't make any difference.


Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) also opposed the nomination, apparently after having discovered that Becker, associate general counsel to the Service Employees International Union, was actually a pro-union lawyer. Truly shocking. Who knew?

The labor folks take Obama's statement to mean that there'll be no recess appointment this round -- meaning nothing at least until the next Senate recess, in late March -- and thus the five-member NLRB, unable to function for more than a year with only two members, will continue to be crippled. "

snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021605665.html?wprss=rss_politics/fedpage