by James Oliphant
Sens. Harry Reid and Dick Durbin took to the Senate floor Wednesday to complain about a breakfast President Bush is holding Thursday for a large group of his unconfirmed federal appointments.
Reid and Durbin, the top two Democratic leaders, said the White House is trying to make them appear obstructionist when in fact, they say the blame lies with the administration.
“The effort it took to invite my Democratic friends and other nominees to the White House is truly a waste," Reid said today. "The president’s Thursday breakfast really only needed one attendee. That’s because only one nominee really matters to the president. It should really just be an intimate breakfast between the president and Steven Bradbury."
Putting the salacious-sounding nature of the final sentence aside, you might ask: Who is Steven Bradbury?
Bradbury is the acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. The critically important office provides legal advice to the White House and it was this office that, at various times during the Bush administration, green-lighted controversial anti-terror policies involving extreme interrogation methods and the warrantless wiretapping program.
Bradbury was nominated in 2005. He's been doing the job in an acting basis ever since because the Democratic-led Senate has made it crystal-clear they won't vote to approve him. Durbin said that Bradbury signed off on legal opinions approving abusive interrogation practices such as waterboarding and complained that the Justice Department won't hand over those memos.
The Senate was so fearful that Bush would use a recess appointment to make Bradbury's position permanent that it stayed in session over the Christmas break, having Sen. Jim Webb come in daily to bang the gavel.
Reid said that he attempted to broker a deal with the White House during the break in which he would agree to push through votes on 84 stalled nominees, which includes nominations to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Department of Homeland Security, the Census Bureau and the board of Amtrak, among others. Reid claims he was told by the White House that it was no deal unless Bradbury was approved as well.
“When the president is willing to vote so many of his own people – including four Assistant Secretaries of Defense and the Fed – off the island for one nominee, you know that person must be special. And special he is," Reid said. “Mr. Bradbury is the lawyer who loves to give the president the answer he wants regardless of the law, regardless of its impact on our nation and regardless of what it does to our standing in the world."
Sen. Arlen Specter called out his colleagues however in an op-ed he wrote last week in the Wall Street Journal. Specter said that “some Senate Democrats oppose particular nominees because they feel some of President Clinton's nominees were treated unfairly,” but he said that that “we can make no progress in the Senate or in the nation if we keep talking about perceived wrongs and behaving like the feuding Hatfields and the McCoys.”
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Comments
Time to keep them out. We don't need a bunch of Lame Duck Bush appointees gaslighting the nation for the next two decades.
It will take that long to figure out everything GWB had done on the 'down low' as it is.
Posted by: C.Morris | February 6, 2008 7:32 PM
Reid and Durbin, the Chavez and Castro of the U.S. Senate. What a shame that Illinois has one of the worst senators ever and basically a traitor at that.
Posted by: John D | February 6, 2008 9:55 PM
I'll take Chavez or Castro ANY DAY over the bushes--they made NAZI money with Prescott. And they shipped our economy to their friends while committing war crimes that are making my Ww2 vet father SPIN in his grave!
Grow up!
Obama and Hilary--keep fighting this
you know what!
Posted by: Lisa | February 6, 2008 10:20 PM
"Reid and Durbin, the Chavez and Castro of the U.S. Senate. What a shame that Illinois has one of the worst senators ever and basically a traitor at that.
Posted by: John D | February 6, 2008 9:55 PM"
John D; A French mime in an invisible box not speaking to no one.
Crazy John! Please escape from the box!
Posted by: C.Morris | February 6, 2008 10:22 PM
So Harry Reid now wants to tell the President of the United States who he can have breakfast with? It's time for the President to swat the little gnats that have been buzzing around his administration for the last seven years. I hope he tells Reid and Durbin to "shove it."
Posted by: bob | February 6, 2008 10:45 PM
Reid and Durbin, the Chavez and Castro of the U.S. Senate. What a shame that Illinois has one of the worst senators ever and basically a traitor at that.
Posted by: John D | February 6, 2008 9:55 PM
Sounds like Lil' Johnny Quackingduck is going to go down with the GOP Titanic...
Posted by: John E | February 6, 2008 11:15 PM
Typical Bush. His idea of negotiation and compromise is to insist he gets his way or else he'll throw a tantrum. I don't see any reason why Congressional Dems should do him or Specter any favors.
Posted by: Tom O | February 7, 2008 2:22 AM
Dickie Durbin and Dingy Harry Reid are a dynamic duo of obstructionists.
Dickie is worrying about waterboarding which was used justifiably against Islamic Jihadists right after 911 to W's credit we have been terror free but, then our own Senator Turban is a liberal who wants to give American civil rights to our enemies.
Senator as far as your corruption probe of the waterboarders look in the mirror that's what politcal corruption looks like! Jerry Whitepringfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | February 7, 2008 9:17 AM
Reid and Durbin a pair a full house can't beat. Really with these two whips and throw in Pelosi its no wonder Bush has his hands full. This goes all the way back to when they would not support his nominees for the bench.
Posted by: Paul Jaeger | February 7, 2008 9:35 AM
I guess we can get along for a lame duck year without any of these Bush pals. Next year we can make John D. cry like a baby witrh a whole new slate of the new president's appointees.
Posted by: c. perry | February 7, 2008 9:41 AM
. What a shame that Illinois has one of the worst senators ever and basically a traitor at that.
Posted by: John D | February 6, 2008 9:55 PM
Sir Quackingduck,if your comment had any validity,which it does not,who is this striking figure from the wing nut party who has stepped forward to take on the "Worst" ?
Posted by: Raving Loon | February 7, 2008 9:42 AM
So Harry Reid now wants to tell the President of the United States who he can have breakfast with? It's time for the President to swat the little gnats that have been buzzing around his administration for the last seven years. I hope he tells Reid and Durbin to "shove it."
Posted by: bob | February 6, 2008 10:45 PM
Hear Hear! All hail King George, who through Divine Providence is the Eternal Ruler of the Vichy of America!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 7, 2008 10:43 AM
Bush has picked some of the most partisan incompetant people for goverment postitions. Libby, Rumsfeld, Brown, Bolton just to name a few. He is the worst president in my lifetime. I am glad that Senators are providing limits on his nominees.
Posted by: pd | February 7, 2008 11:05 AM
So, why aren't Bush and Cheney traitors for giving America false war information? This was considered treason during WWII.
Posted by: Vivian | February 7, 2008 3:33 PM
When hell freezes over, George.
Posted by: Rick/Sneads Ferry, NC | February 7, 2008 5:40 PM
Pardon??
"(The one willing) to give the president the answer he wants regardless of the law, regardless of its impact on our nation and regardless of what it does to our standing in the world."
I thought that was Harry Reid on the question of impeachment for all this.
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Posted by: thedeanpeople | February 8, 2008 6:44 AM