Swinging The Same Bat He Always Has

I love it when President Obama does something heroically, visibly bold like today's recess appointment of former Ohio AG Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  The Republicans have been blocking any and all appointments to the post because they want the federal bureau disbanded and demolished.  They don't want consumers to be protected from the financial industry, they want consumers to be sacrificed to it.

How angry are the Republicans and their lobbyist pals?  The GOP is furious, with Orange Julius and Mitch the Turtle frothing at the mouth and the US Chamber of Commerce is now all but threatening endless court challenges to the recess appointment until the end of time and space.

The recess appointments President Obama announced Wednesday are “almost certain” to be challenged in court, according to a top official with the nation’s largest business lobby.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not decided whether it will file a legal challenge to the appointments, according to David Hirschmann, who heads the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. But he said he’s confident that Obama’s precedent-shattering move will land the administration in court.

"We've made no decisions ourselves," Hirschmann told The Hill. "What we do know is ... it's almost certain ultimately a court will decide if what the president did is legal or not."

Obama infuriated Republicans Wednesday by announcing the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Senate Republicans had blocked Cordray's nomination for months, so the president bypassed them with a recess appointment during the holiday break.

He followed that up later in the day with recess appointments for three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), heading off another likely GOP filibuster.

Republicans are nothing less than completely apoplectic, because the President has used their own Bush-era plenary executive tactics against them in the name of the American consumer.

The recess appointments broke with legal precedent, as they while the Senate is holding regular pro forma sessions. Republicans insist the Senate has not been in recess thanks to the seconds-long sessions held every few days, but White House attorneys determined the procedural move is a gimmick that can be ignored by the president.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) blasted the move as an "unprecedented power grab" and said he expects "the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate."

The gambit puts the bureau in "uncertain legal territory," according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

So let's bring it, GOP.  Let's see the Supreme Court case.  Let's see the articles of impeachment.  Let's see your cards on the table while you try to do everything you can do destroy the federal agency created to reign in the excesses of the most egrigious Wall Street banks.  You do that in an election year.  Please.  By all means, hand the populist mantle to the Democrats for a generation, and side with the 1% while the President is campaigning to help the middle class.

“Cleveland, I know you’re hearing a lot of promises from a lot of politicians lately,” Obama said. “But today, you’re only going to hear one from me. As long as I have the privilege of serving as your president, I promise to do everything I can, every day, to make this country a place where hard work and responsibility mean something - where everyone can get ahead, not just those at the very top or those who know how to work the system.” 

You do that.  I could sure use a Democratic House and Senate to go along with President Obama's re-election, because that's exactly the trap the President wants you to walk into.

Step inside his wheelhouse and get leveled by another home run swing, boys.