By Arnold Ahlert ——Bio and Archives--July 12, 2013
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For the past several months, the Senate has operated under a nuclear cloud. As a result of the Senate's decision to reject a small number of President Bush's judicial nominees, the Republican majority has threatened to break the Senate rules, violate over 200 years of Senate tradition and impair the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together on issues of real concern to the American people.Now that Reid is in control, he has changed his tune. But his sudden change of heart is disingenuous. McConnell, who characterized Reid's accusations of Republican obstructionism as an "absolutely phony, manufactured crisis," revealed that at least two of the nominees opposed by Republicans, McCarthy and Perez, can already garner more than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. What is really behind Reid's about-face, McConnell illuminated, is that the Democrats and their Big Labor backers "want... the Senate to ratify the President's unconstitutional decision to illegally appoint nominees to the NLRB and the CFPB without the input of the Senate." The reasons for that is fairly obvious. Much of Obama's agenda is DOA in Congress, and installing apparatchiks, who will implement his un-passable policies administratively, will allow the president to bypass Congress and impose his will by fiat. As for the far Left and Big Labor, which overwhelming represents government unions, their agenda has been seriously undermined by the aforementioned D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, along with a slew of other stunning successes for free market labor policies, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's victory limiting the power of government unions and the previously unimaginable right-to-work law recently enacted in Michigan. In short, the government union lobby senses its waning influence and is desperate to secure an avenue of power by whatever means necessary--and it knows that the window of opportunity may be closing. The NLRB is one such powerful perch that radical labor activists hope to infest. Think back to the board's 2011 attempt to dictate where Boeing airlines could do business, which it did in order to placate Boeing's labor unions in Washington State. If NLRB members are not confirmed by August, the board will cease to function, leaving labor decisions to regional NLRB offices. As for some of the other nominees, CFPB nominee Richard Cordray would be a disastrous choice to head the consumer protection agency birthed by the Dodd-Frank comprehensive financial reform bill. As Bloomberg News reported in 2011, Cordray was an enthusiastic supporter of Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People (ESOP) during his stint as state treasurer. ESOP is a left-wing guerrilla activist group with a penchant for storming banks and private residences. EPA nominee Gina McCarthy was one of disgraced former EPA head Lisa Jackson's top lieutenants and author of some of that agency's most economy-crushing carbon rules. As the Wall Street Journal notes, McCarthy "has been a notably willful regulator, even for this Administration. Her promotion is another way of saying that Mr. Obama has given up getting Congress to agree to his anticarbon agenda, especially given the number of Senate Democrats from coal or oil states." Thomas Perez may be the most radical nominee of all. Prior to his nomination for Secretary of Labor, Perez was the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Justice Department, where he was a more-than-willing perpetrator of that agency's radical and racially polarizing agenda. His efforts included wars against photo ID for voting, attacking banks for not granting enough mortgages to "people of color," (reprising the same tactics that led to the financial collapse of 2008), and suing state fire and police departments for not hiring black applicants who failed employment tests. These are the nominees Obama needs to install by any means necessary if he is to have any hope of expanding his radical agenda while there is still time left. McConnell made the intentions of Reid and his fellow Democrats clear. "They want the power, and they want it now. They don't care about the consequences," he contended. He spoke to Politico regarding what may happen next. "We've requested a meeting of all Senators. We haven't had one of those this year," he said. "This is a matter of extreme importance to the institution and the country, and we think we ought all get together to discuss. We're happy to do that as soon as possible." Reid said he'd consider such an idea: "I'm happy to have a joint meeting... I want this resolved, and I want it resolved one way or the other." When working towards that resolution, Harry Reid would be very wise to remember one of the oldest political adages ever: what goes around, comes around. Despite their current hubris, Democrats will not control the levers of power forever. They need to think long and hard about the long-term consequences that would arise from the recklessness of invoking the nuclear option--lest they become victims of their own making at some future point in time.
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Arnold Ahlert was an op-ed columist with the NY Post for eight years.