The Senate confirmed a bunch of Obama appointees before it recessed today, including a couple of Federal Reserve governors (though not Peter Diamond, who’s presumably still held up in Richard Shelby hell) and such dignitaries as Nancy Lindborg as Assistant 
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Bureau. Yes, really. Senate confirmation is required for the post of Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Bureau. We are all insane.
There are still loads of nominees still pending, of course, but hey — Obama can always give a few of them recess appointments. Right? In a word, no:
Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday night to a Republican demand to block President Obama from making recess appointments while Congress is out of town campaigning for the midterm elections. Democratic leaders have agreed to schedule pro-forma sessions of the Senate every week over the next six weeks, a move that will prevent Obama from making emergency appointments, according to Senate sources briefed on the talks.
….Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had threatened to send Obama’s most controversial nominees back to the president if Democrats did not agree to schedule pro-forma sessions, according to a senior GOP aide….Under Senate rules, the chamber may only carry over pending nominees during an extended recess if senators agree by unanimous consent. Senators rarely invoke this rule, but McConnell threatened to object unless Democrats agreed to prevent Obama from making recess appointments.
Now, that’s some hardball from the Republicans. Was there anything Harry Reid could have done to stop it? I think so. Obama can make recess appointments if the Senate is out of session for as little as a week, while the carry-over rule applies only to recesses of 30 days or more. So if Reid had scheduled pro-forma sessions every two weeks, current nominees would have been carried over automatically but Obama still would have retained the option of making some recess appointments.
Now, maybe Obama didn’t ask for that. Who knows? Or maybe I’m reading the Senate rules wrong. But if I have it right, Reid didn’t have to give in to this extortion.
