Crime, sure. But is it high yet?
When the number one executive in the land deliberately, explicitly defies the Constitution, you can certainly make the case.
Allah:
"Meanwhile, Iain Murray at National Review reminds us that the names of the three NLRB appointees were only sent to the Senate three weeks ago. They haven’t been filibustered, so there’s no obstruction — yet. So eager is President Working Class Hero to start off an election year by defying Congress that he picked this fight before he had to.
"Via CNS, here’s Carney warning the press corps yesterday that Obama was prepared to engage in unilateral executive action 'small, medium, and large' to push his agenda. Let’s put this power grab in the 'medium' category; 'large' is reserved for wars like Libya that he’s undertaken without so much as a resolution of good luck from Congress. The more I think about this, the more it smells like O’s version of FDR’s court-packing plan, except (a) this is more constitutionally dubious and (b) this is transparently a cheap election-year pander. Exit question: What will the next Republican president use this exciting new precedent for, pray tell?"
"Update: Via Free Republic, enjoy this 2008 AP story describing how Democrats successfully used pro forma Senate sessions to block evil monarchical lawless cowboy president George W. Bush from making recess appointments of his own."
Oh, yeah, and before I forget...Thanks, Obamazoids!
Addendum: McCarthy isn't sure it's frankly unconstitutional, but he is certain that it's plenty wrong:
"The hypocrisy here is blatant, even by congressional standards. In 2007, Reid kept the senate in pro forma session in order to block President Bush from making recess appointments — particularly, the eminently qualified Steve Bradbury’s appointment to head DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel. 'I had to keep the Senate in pro forma session to block the Bradbury appointment,' Reid recounted in 2008. 'That necessarily meant no recess appointments could be made.' "
