Kristol Launches Bogus Attack On Recess Appointment of DOJ Official

Written by Adam Shah

Published

On Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol attacked President Obama's decision to give a recess appointment to Justice Department nominee James Cole. Kristol claimed: “The recess appointment there is odd. I mean, it's one thing to recess appoint some foreign service officers who were held up for various reasons for their ambassadorships. To recess appoint the deputy attorney general of the United States when the Senate -- the Democratic Senate seemed unwilling to bring to the floor to have a debate and to have a vote is, I think, unusual.”

In fact, President George W. Bush used his recess appointment power again and again to install high-ranking members of his administration.

Furthermore, Cole has received bipartisan support, including from former Republican Sen. John C. Danforth (MO) and Michael Toner, former general counsel for the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign. And according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the reason Cole's nomination was not brought to the Senate floor for a vote was that “Despite repeated requests, for more than five months, Senate Republicans refused to debate the nomination of Jim Cole to be the Deputy Attorney General.”

On December 29, Obama gave a recess appointment to Cole, naming him deputy attorney general - the number two position at the Justice Department.

But such an appointment is hardly new. Indeed, according to a Congressional Research Service report issued shortly before the end of the Bush administration, Bush made 171 recess appointments. Six of these people were recess appointed to the second-highest position in their respective agencies:

  • Gordon England who was given a recess appointment to be deputy secretary of defense;
  • Eugene Hickok, recess appointed to be deputy secretary of the department of education;
  • Romolo Bernardi, recess appointed to be deputy secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development;
  • Kirk Van Tine, recess appointed to be deputy secretary for the Department of Transportation;
  • Theodore Kassinger, recess appointed to be deputy secretary for the Department of Commerce; and
  • Stephen Johnson, recess appointed to be deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Among the other recess appointments included in the Congressional Research Service Report were:

  • Alice Fisher to be assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Fisher, by the way, received a recess appointment even though at the time of her recess appointment, the Republican-controlled Senate had not held a floor vote on Fisher's nomination. (Fisher was later confirmed 61-35.)
  • John Bolton, recess appointed to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations;
  • Charles Pickering, recess appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, one step below the Supreme Court
  • William Pryor, recess appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, also one step below the Supreme Court
  • Julie Myers, recess appointed to be assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.