On Obama’s granting 15 recess appointments over the weekend:
Well, I would like to get into high-dudgeon over all of this, but all I can muster is low-dudgeon, because [both] the Republicans and Democrats when in office use it [recess appointments]. President Bush used it to appoint our ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and he served there for over a year on a recess appointment.
I will admit that doing 15 recess appointments on a Saturday is slightly excessive. But the one that really I think is offensive in the group is … this guy [Craig] Becker [who] is essentially an agent, an advocate of the unions in what is — the NLRB — a quasi-judicial body.
So it’s like having a prosecutor on the jury. You really ought not do that. He’s a guy who is very extreme in his opinions. Card check, which the unions have wanted and which the Congress will not approve, is the way to abolish the secret ballot in union elections. The unions want it. The country does not.
And if the administration attempts to implement it by executive order, you know that with this guy on the NLRB, it will get at least his approval. So I think that’s why people are objecting.
It goes with the high-handedness of this administration overriding the popular will, if you wish, as expressed in three elections, expressed in public opinion, in implementing health care in a reluctant House and Senate, using all kinds of maneuvers. It’s in the same vein.
But the president is feeling like he is the king of the world, and that’s why he did it.