Recess Abuse
President Bush makes an end run around the Senate.

Friday, April 6, 2007

"WE UNDERSTAND and respect the Senate's process for confirming nominees," says White House spokesman Tony Fratto. If so, the administration has an odd way of showing it. President Bush chose this week to provoke the Democratic majority not once but three times by using his power to make recess appointments that sidestep the need for Senate confirmation.

Mr. Bush's action installed three nominees -- his picks for ambassador to Belgium (a GOP donor who contributed $50,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth); the No. 2 at the Social Security Administration (an advocate of private accounts); and the so-called regulatory czar (a conservative scholar with an anti-regulatory bent). Because the recess appointments last through the end of the current Congress, the maneuver is tantamount to giving the nominees the jobs through the end of Mr. Bush's term. It does not bode well for relations with Congress during the remaining 655 days of Mr. Bush's presidency.

There's ample blame to go around. The Senate should have done more to ensure that the nominees received prompt hearings and up-or-down votes. On the merits, we tend to think that all three deserved confirmation. But the political reality is that the Senate has changed hands. These nominees were provocative to some Democrats in the first place; installing them through the end run of recess appointments is even more so.

For instance, the recess appointment of Andrew Biggs as deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration eliminates any possibility of bipartisan cooperation on Social Security. The administration has a legitimate complaint that Mr. Biggs, an advocate of private accounts, wasn't given a hearing or vote in the Senate. But the recess appointment enraged -- as the administration knew it would -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whose cooperation on Social Security changes would be critical.

The devious handling of the recess appointment of GOP donor Sam Fox to the Brussels post is even more disturbing. We're no fans of the Swift Boaters, who attacked the Vietnam service record of Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, but we didn't find Mr. Fox's donation to the group disqualifying. Senate Democrats -- most notably Mr. Kerry -- did. Mr. Bush accordingly withdrew the nomination moments before a scheduled vote. This week, he popped the surprise: giving Mr. Fox a recess appointment. Similarly, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) says he was planning a hearing for Susan E. Dudley before her recess appointment as head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Mr. Bush can't simultaneously complain that his nominees aren't being accorded due process and take steps to avoid due process. If the administration hopes to achieve anything in its final months, the administration would do well to make more of an effort to adapt to the Senate's new political landscape.