George F. Will on President Obama’s “unprecedented” recess appointments:
So the D.C. court said those three appointees were not rightfully in office. The NLRB said it “respectfully” disagreed with the court and went its merry way, without a quorum. Absent the perfunctory expression of respect, this was pretty much what George Wallace did 50 years ago this year when he stood in the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama to prevent two young blacks from registering as students.
Yes, because the word “recess” is pretty similar to the word “racist” so this comparison is totally apt. Even though every other President in the last several generations made recess appointments, suddenly for some unfathomable reason I can’t put my finger on, when Barack Obama does it, it’s “lawlessness”. Bonus verbatim derpage:
Courts defeated Wallace’s lawlessness. Presumably the Supreme Court will defeat Obama’s by telling the NLRB that the D.C. court was right about recess appointments. By such judicial vigilance against the excesses of elected officials, democracy is disciplined and progressivism’s agenda — unchecked executive power — is understood to be unconstitutional.
Yeah, and during the last administration you cheered on every iota of that executive power as not only necessary but vital to a functioning democracy, Georgie. Bite me.
Jack the Second
I blame Harry Reid.
If the Senate was doing its job, we wouldn’t need recess appointments to keep the government running.
kindness
Guillotine yet?
Butch
IOKIYAR has never been more apt.
MattF
Well, you see, Will is a partisan hack. The mannerisms, the grave demeanour, the bowtie, the baseball chatter, the 3×5 cards– it’s all “Don’t look there, look here.”
Citizen_X
Fixted for you, Will.
What a maroon.
Citizen_X
OK, end that strikeout after “progressivism’s.” Mobile version don’t allow editing! I are oppressed!
Frankensteinbeck
If we want it, he’s agin it. That’s all. He’s an asshole with a serious face, the old school Republican.
Kyle
Being a right-wing hack means having no memory of your statements during the last Repuke assministration, being inured to the stench of your own hypocrisy, and more projection than a 21-theater multiplex.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Will has to wear a bag of cloves around his neck to cover up the old man smell. He’s angry because pontificating doesn’t get him laid.
Over and out.
piratedan
I guess he’s not big in to cause and effect…..yeah George, just imagine if the Senate wasn’t being held hostage by the minority party even preventing the nominees from being brought up for a vote, then maybeperhapspossiblyprobably these kinds of appointments wouldn’t be necessary. What a fucking partisan tool.
hildebrand
The republicans are John Cleese in the argument clinic – that is all they have left.
Violet
George Will is the male version of Peggy Noonan. Pining for the days of Reagan, rehashing old columns that amazingly find reasons why Republicans are great and Democrats are The Problem, all while looking eminently reasonable and smartish so as to not scare the totebag set when assuring them that their innate IGMFY mentality is just fine.
Noah Brand
George Will is amazing to watch at this point. He doesn’t even know what he’s writing any more, he’s just so goddamn tired. He got big defending the Reagan administration’s jellybean-fueled incompetence with a lot of classical quotations, and now he doesn’t even know what he’s defending any more. He just wakes up, sees the day’s list of talking points, sighs, absentmindedly attempts to roll a fresh piece of paper into his laptop, and just starts typing out of sheer path-polished reflex.
Anoniminous
@hildebrand:
No they’re not.
Haydnseek
@Anoniminous: FTW!
Onihanzo
@kindness:
Yep. Guillotine.
http://s4.postimg.org/5e9pusjel/guillotine.gif
quannlace
It’s surprising what will suddenly set Will off. He had one piece that was just a rant about too many people wearing blue jeans.
piratedan
@quannlace: he’s moved into full “get off my veranda” mode
NickT
George Swill is one of the many good reasons for not wasting time on the Whopper.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Noah Brand:
Well done, sir!
Ben Cisco
@piratedan: With a mint julep in his hand.
Don’t let the accent fool ya – he’s NeoConfederate through and through.
Suffern ACE
Obama is really like the MLB forcing the DH on poor Anerican League fans.
Gin & Tonic
@Ben Cisco: His accent is made up. No normal American human talks like that.
danimal
Well, at least Will is an derping expert on climate change. I think he’s expanding his expertise. Derp, derp, derp.
Spiffy McBang
FWIW, the post title gave me an unending stream of giggles. And I don’t giggle.
Patricia Kayden
@Jack the Second: Exactly. The only reason for recess appointments is because the Repubs refuse to confirm any of President Obama’s appointments!!!!
**facepalm**
danimal
@hildebrand: No they’re not.
some guy
Liberals think guzzling bleach is morally reprehensible and just plain wrong.
pass it on, be sure to send it to the wingnut brother in law, and watch bleach sales skyrocket.
patroclus
It is interesting that Will failed to even mention that the Republicans have effectively blocked all appointments to the NLRB so as to stop it from functioning at all – it would seem that that would be relevant to the whole issue and that his readers might be better informed if he had included at least a brief description of the real scandal.
It’s kind of the same thing with the IRS issue – the Republicans have refused to confirm Obama’s appointees there too, yet Fox is going on and on about how Obama needs to be held accountable for his alleged politicization of the IRS. How can Obama be responsible when his appointees never get confirmed?
Yatsuno
@patroclus:
Anything good was because of Dubya and his ingenious Presidency. Anything bad is the fault of the blah Kenyan usurper. QED.
Hungry Joe
@quannlace: Will’s blue-jean column was … a wonder. As I remember it, he claimed to have worn blue jeans just once — to a costume party. Upon donning them he decided that they are extremely uncomfortable, leading him to conclude that people who wear them are stupid.
Mike E
@Suffern ACE: If by “DH” you mean the GOP, and by “American League fans” you mean America, then I concur.
j
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment
And one of GWB’s appointments was crazy as a loon John Bolton.
Marmot
@Noah Brand: “just starts typing out of sheer path-polished reflex.”
Excellent.
Svensker
To be fair to Georgie, he is actually saying that as necessary as what Bush was doing was and as wonderful, Bush should have gone to Congress to ask first. He’s arguing that Bush should have rolled back a bit of Exec Power.
Or did I misread his column (it was hard to focus on the content and not get covered in slobber)?
Ash Can
Any dimwitted hack who failed to complain about Republican admins doing more and/or worse than this admin has done has forfeited his/her right to complain now. Fuck them all.
Rafer Janders
Unitary Executive!
Gordon Schumway
@Rafer Janders: According to the noted progressive David Addington.
Just One More Canuck
@j: Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that
SatanicPanic
It’s the unearned sense of being smarter than everyone else that bugs me about this guy
David Hunt
@Patricia Kayden:
Fixed
Ben Cisco
@Gin & Tonic: Can’t argue that – it’s just weird.
Trollhattan
My daughter has two recess appointments at school PER DAY. Did not realize she was engaged in serial constitution-stompin’.
Dear lord, grant me a WaPo opinionatin’ spot. I’ve worked long enough and I deserve a break.
Twentyfifteen minutes a week for six figures sounds like something I could embrace. Amen.gocart mozart
Presumably the Supreme Court will defeat Obama ’cause Ooga Booga!
Mike in NC
It would be pretty easy to dress up as George Will for a costume party: polka dot bow tie, rumpled suit, wingtips, and a big stick up your ass.
grape_crush
“Yeah, and during the last administration you cheered on every iota of that executive power as not only necessary but vital to a functioning democracy, Georgie.”
God I hate to have to correct this.
Did you actually read the whole of Will’s 2005 column?
Sure, the language is sharper when discussing Obama and much more charitable when Will discusses Dubya, but the position appears consistent.
Not that he piped up when Dubya appointed his selections like John ‘Pro-semitie Sam” Bolton – among others – in the same manner, but that’s not unexpected coming from a douchebag like Will.
retr2327
“By such judicial vigilance against the excesses of elected officials, democracy is disciplined and progressivism’s agenda — unchecked executive power — is understood to be unconstitutional.”
Unless, of course, the Supreme court is recognizing a right to abortion, gay marriage, fair trials, defendants’ attorneys, or warrant requirements, in which case “Judicial Activitism!!!”
What an idiot.
coloradoblue
Obama needs to drop a few missiles from some predator drones on the RATS in the SCOTUS. You know that the RATS and Kennedy are going to f*ck Obama and the American people again. And then probably say ‘Oops, sorry, we were wrong’ for the next Repub prez.
Kathleen
@Noah Brand: Isn’t that what they all do? And, by the way, per Wikipedia, Bush made 171 recess appointments. But then, he was Republican and, not, you know…
Kathleen
@Gin & Tonic: Ah, but perhaps it’s not the accent that’s made up – perhaps Will is not a normal American human. My bet is on that.
Ted & Hellen
Zander, your writing style, if not always your content, is increasingly juvenile. Please up your game.
“Derp” and “bite me” are note terribly original terms.
Ted & Hellen
@j:
So please explain why Obama, in the face of supposedly unprecedented obstruction, has been so slow to do what he should have done beginning four years ago?
The man is shameless and cunning.
Lurking Canadian
Wasn’t there some Republican chicanery about never actually being “in recess” in some pro forma sense, in order to prevent the president from making recess appointments? Or that they are “in recess” only for hundredths of a second at a time between gavel strokes, or some such bullshit?
(Aside: make a single keystroke error when typing “bullshit” and autocorrect recommends “village”. Emergent behavior!)
Epicurus
Yes, Zandar, please, please, PLEASE take writing suggestions from our resident troll. Meanwhile, “Ted & Hellen”…kindly take a piss. Juvenile enough for ya, magumbo?
NickT
@Ted & Hellen:
Where’s your personal blog/newsletter/bathroom wall, Tedious and Yelling? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have one. Funny how that works with trolls like you, isn’t it?
Ted & Hellen
Calling other commenters “trolls” is also very original.
Opie_jeanne
@Ted & Hellen:
Because trolling isn’t.
Uncle Cosmo
@patroclus: As Heinlein pointed out in Time Enough for Love, the second-best way to lie is to tell the truth, but not all of it.
Swill has been nothing more than a second-best liar for his entire poor-imitation-of-a-career.
mai naem
Why does anybody pay any attention to George Mutherfuhcker Will? This is the POS who stole Carter’s debating folder which got left behind somewhere where he was at and handed the stuff to Reagan. I will gayh-ran-tee you that if a Democrat did the same exact thing, George Mutherfuhcker Will would knock out a column in five minutes flat as to how unseemly and unfair and assholish that was. Yeah, ask me what I really think about George Mutherfuhcker Will. Go ahead.
JustRuss
@danimal: Well played, sir!
JustRuss
Can somebody point me to the George Will columns decrying the “unitary executive” BS during the Bush years? Anyone?
lojasmo
@Ted & Hellen:
You mean like trying to close Gitmo four years ago?
When nearly all of congress voted to keep it open?
Like that?
Ted & Hellen
@lojasmo:
You mean like TRYING to close Gitmo four years ago?
Don’t make me laugh. It’s always about “trying” so very, very hard with this guy, isn’t it?
How about some doing?
ZBIV
I think we need to be clear that a superior understanding of the English language gets you exactly jack sh!t when it comes to reasoning and math skills.
ZBIV +5
NickT
@ZBIV:
Not true of the reasoning component of your analysis.
NickT
@Ted & Hellen:
And what have you achieved? Why nothing! It’s all about passive-aggressive sniveling in the shadows with you, Teddy.