Senate Republicans who have voted to block two key Obama administration appointments in recent days are doing so at their own peril.
Outside the Beltway, this doesn’t seem like clever politicking or a stand on principle. It looks a lot like calculated obstructionism.
It may come as a surprise to federal lawmakers, but the losers in this “game” aren’t the Democrats.
It’s the people’s government, which functions just a little more slowly and inefficiently without the appropriate personnel in place.
Ultimately, these maneuvers will boomerang in a way that will disgust the public all over again.
Democrats will not forget these affronts and when Republicans regain power, they’ll deliver a payback by filibustering GOP appointees.
Will it ever end?
At issue are a federal appeals court nominee and the appointment of the head of a new consumer protection agency.
On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked the confirmation of Caitlin Halligan, a well-qualified candidate for a judgeship on the Washington, D.C., appeals court bench.
This vacancy has existed for five years, and is one of three on the court. The D.C. appeals bench gets a lot of attention because of the nature of the cases before it and the number of Supreme Court justices who served there before being appointed to the high court.
Republicans contend that Halligan, the former New York solicitor general, is a legal activist.
They’ve criticized arguments she made in trying to hold gun manufacturers responsible for crimes committed with guns.
But it needs to be made clear that Halligan was representing a client — New York state. Furthermore, she told senators she believes the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms.
The other disconcerting element of the Republican move to block Halligan’s appointment is that it signals the deterioration of a fragile 2005 truce made by the Gang of 14 — of which Colorado’s Ken Salazar, then a senator, was a member.
Lawmakers agreed to block judicial nominees only when there are “extraordinary circumstances,” which surely isn’t the case here.
The other appointment block, that of Richard Cordray, makes even less sense.
The former Ohio attorney general and nominee for a new consumer protection watchdog agency has enjoyed bipartisan praise.
His qualifications, however, aren’t the issue. Republicans want a do-over on the legislation creating the agency. If that’s the goal, then they ought to get a bill passed.
Elections have consequences, and one of them is the people in power get to run the government.
Republican lawmakers need to consider presidential appointees on their merits and stop the shenanigans. They’re not fooling anyone, particularly not the American people.
