More than two hundred days into the Trump administration, hundreds of presidential appointments remain unfilled, as the vacation-loving United States Senate has not gotten around to confirming these nominations yet. Of 195 United States ambassadorships to foreign countries, 104 remain vacant. Currently, the United States has no ambassadors in crucial countries like Germany, Russia, Australia, and other nations of extreme geopolitical importance around the world.
Herein lies the question: Why has a lazy United States Senate gone on vacation, once again, when there is so much crucial work still undone? Or even worse, although the Constitution allows for recess appointments while the Senate is on vacation, meaning Trump could fill these positions with the Senate gone, Republican leadership of the Senate, headed by John Thune, has resorted to periodic pro forma sessions during the month of August, where the Senate will technically “open” for a couple of days, with virtually nobody there, with the sole aim of blocking the president’s opportunity for recess appointments. It’s like if the janitor comes in and flips on the lights for a day during the vacation, claiming that the Senate is open for business. But nobody’s there. And thus, the president cannot complete his appointments.
Why this senseless delay tactic, with so many crucial appointments unfilled? Why hasn’t North Carolina’s outgoing senior senator, Thom Tillis, criticized or questioned this obstructionism? Why hasn’t the RNC chair, Michael Whately, publicly called out this obstructionist waste of time, even as he remains as RNC chair for the time being while at the same time running for the United States Senate in North Carolina?
And then there is the issue of the so-called “blue slip” approvals. This is the cozy little Deep State procedure whereby Republican senators, when receiving a U.S. attorney nomination from the president, then asks for the approval of blue-state Democrat senators before confirming. If a Democrat says “no,” the nomination dies. By this boys’-club relationship, the Republican-controlled Senate effectively sank President Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, when leftist Democrat senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim opposed her, despite a Republican majority, which could have confirmed her.
Once again, when are the objections to these ridiculous obstructionist practices from Senator Tillis, from Chairman Whatley, and from the RNC?
The Senate, which has a responsibility under the Constitution to consider presidential appointments and then either accept them or reject them — thus, the “Advice and Consent Clause” — should not be going on a late summer vacation when there is so much work to be done, especially in the area of presidential appointments.
Americans who worry about paying the mortgage and even where the next meal is coming from do not enjoy the luxury of going on vacation for 180 days out of the year. Tillis, Whatley, and the RNC should speak out against this lazy practice, and senators should get their butts back to Washington and get to work on these confirmations.
This sort of laziness shows the extent to which the Congress, whether under Democrat or Republican control, has lost touch with the average American, thinking they can just leave the office and leave work undone and go to the beach whenever they want, all the while getting paid, getting free medical care superior to what most Americans have, and enjoying all the other superfluous trappings of their office.
Hardworking Americans built this nation on a blood-sweat-and-tears work ethic — working 40, 50 and sometimes 60-hour work weeks — not on a perpetual laziness that allows for six-month vacations with crucial work left undone.
North Carolinians, and the nation, deserve senators who do their jobs — not politicians who flip on the lights for show while leaving America in the dark at home and abroad.
Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer and Republican congressional candidate, is the author of the book Kangaroo Court: How Dirty Prosecutors and Sleazy Lawyers Destroy Political Opponents, Attack Free Speech, and Subvert the Constitution, Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lieutenant Clint Lorance, The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II, and CALL SIGN EXTORTION 17: The Shootdown of SEAL Team Six, and the author of 15 books on the United States military, including three national bestsellers, and is a Publisher’s Weekly national bestseller. He is one of four former JAG officers serving on the Lorance legal team. Lorance was pardoned by President Trump in November 2019. Brown is also a former military prosecutor, a former special assistant United States attorney, and a candidate for United States Senate in North Carolina. He can be reached at donbrownbooks@gmail.com and on Twitter @donbrownfornc.
Image via Picryl.