The president will use a recess appointment to install Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn as members of the NLRB. Block and Griffin are Democrats, while Flynn is a Republican.
The recess appointments are a huge victory for Obama’s union allies, which had urged the president to use any means necessary to keep the NLRB functioning. Without additional members, the NLRB would have lacked the three-member quorum needed to issue rules and regulations.
“The American people deserve to have qualified public servants fighting for them every day — whether it is to enforce new consumer protections or uphold the rights of working Americans," Obama said in a statement. "We can’t wait to act to strengthen the economy and restore security for our middle class and those trying to get in it, and that’s why I am proud to appoint these fine individuals to get to work for the American people.”
This decision by the President to press forward on the heels of the contentious appointment earlier today of Richard Cordray to the unaccountable consumer protection bureau created under the Dodd / Frank banking reform rammed through Congress in 2009 is a clear declaration of war against not only Congress, but the US Constitution.
The National Labor Relations Board was a major battleground during 2011 as the NLRB commenced regulatory and legal action against Boeing for its decision to construct a multi-billion aircraft assembly facility in 'right to work' South Carolina - providing nearly 2,000 jobs as opposed to building the facility in union-dominated Washington state - particularly after the machinist union there refused to negotiate with the company to limit job actions which could disrupt the manufacturing of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
More recently, with only 3 members, 2 of whom where Democrat, the NLRB rammed through a change in regulations that reduced the amount of time from when an employee would advise a company he sought to unionize the company and the company would have to have a unionization election. This is a major element of the 'card check' legislation which failed to pass in Congress to facilitate establishing unions and limit the ability of companies to prevent the unionization of their workforces.
While a Senator, Barack Obama insisted that a 'pro forma' session of Congress was sufficient to prevent the Bush Administration from performing recess appointment. However, with his inability to effectively negotiate and compromise with Congress - or stop demonstrating contempt towards Congress - the President now embraces the concept of the 'end justifies the means' - and redefines not only the rules of conduct, but apparently the Constitution.
The President has threatened that he will move without Congress and without Constitutional authority if he can in order to promote / enable his agenda and respond to a 'do nothing Congress' that he says refuses to compromise with him. Of course, to King Louis XVI Obama, compromise is when those who differ with his opinion surrender their viewpoint and fully accept his as the 'solution'.
The US Chamber of Commerce is threatening legal action to oppose the President's authority to recess appoint persons when the Senate remains in session - and if they are smart, the House and Senate Republicans will do the same in order to address the constitutional crisis the President has precipitated.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also needs to think very hard about the contempt that the President has shown towards him - because if unchallenged and unaddressed - Harry Reid may see a Republican President undertaking these same steps at some point in the future.
UPDATE - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided that party politics are far more important than either the US Constitution or demonstrating his own hypocrisy...
On the other side of the argument at that time was Reid, who began holding pro forma sessions in 2007 to block Bush nominees.
“I had to keep the Senate in pro-forma session to block the Bradbury appointment. That necessarily meant no recess appointments could be made,” he said on the Senate floor in 2008, as Democrats blocked a potential recess appointment of Steven Bradbury to be the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration. Bradbury is one of the attorneys cited by the Obama White House in justifying the Cordray move…
Demonstrating his actions in 2007 to keep the Senate in session to block the possibility of a President Bush recess appointment.
However today...the rules are different when a Democrat is in the White House..
“I support President Obama’s appointment today of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB,” [the senator] said in a statement. “I believe he is the right person to lead the agency and help protect consumers from fraud and scams.”
“While I would have strongly preferred that it go through the normal confirmation process, unfortunately the system is completely broken,” [the senator] added. “If we’re going to make progress as a nation, both parties in Washington need to work together to end the procedural gridlock and hyper-partisanship.”
The base arrogance, contempt, and disregard to both the law and the Constitution from the Democrats today is unprecedented. Even the Confederates were more upfront in their desire to wreck the Union. The United States, today, is a banana republic because there are those who actually do put partisan politics ahead of the country and it's laws - and actively are trying to deflect attention from their ethical bankruptcy by blaming their despicable actions on the Republicans.
Here's picture of Harry Reid as he made his announcement to the press...
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