Obama, Dictator and Coward (UPDATE: and Liar)

What does Obama do when a appointee he desires to oversee Obamacare is slightly controversial and not-so-slightly way out Left? He goes over the heads of Congress and gives him a recess appointment.

And the appointment of Donald Berwick is not just any recess appointment as even the New York Times notes:

The recess appointment was somewhat unusual because the Senate is in recess for less than two weeks and senators were still waiting for Dr. Berwick to submit responses to some of their requests for information. No confirmation hearing has been held or scheduled.

In other words, there was no effort by Obama or his Demorat allies in the Senate to have a proper hearing or much vetting at all. Hmmmm, I wonder why?



So here we have in Berwick a Socialist who just loves the UK’s NHS and openly praises healthcare rationing and heathcare as income redistribution. That would make for interesting hearings, would it not? But the hearings would be too interesting for Obama, especially in an election season. He’d rather opposition be silenced and “get out of the way” of Obamacare and of this appointment. So he bypasses basic vetting, as well as democracy, and recess appoints this Socialist to avoid even a single confirmation hearing.

Obama not only has a totalitarian streak, he has a yellow streak as well.


MORE: Obama’s line blaming those obstructionist Republicans – it’s a lie. In fact, Republicans were eager for the confirmation process . . . which was the problem. From Jake Tapper, ABC:

Republicans were not delaying or stalling Berwick’s nomination. Indeed, they were eager for his hearing, hoping to assail Berwick’s past statements about health care rationing and his praise for the British health care system.

“The nomination hasn’t been held up by Republicans in Congress and to say otherwise is misleading,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which would have held Berwick’s hearing. Grassley said that he “requested that a hearing take place two weeks ago, before this recess.”

Berwick’s nomination was sent to the Senate in April, and his hearing had not been scheduled because he was participating in the “standard vetting process,” a Democratic aide on the Senate Finance Committee told ABC News.

But speaking not for attribution, Democratic officials say that neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., nor Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, were eager for an ugly confirmation fight four months before the midterm elections.

Nor was Obama. Who needs democracy when you can chicken out and be a dictator.