Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) is back in the news again. You remember him....the Senator who singlehandedly held up passage of the unemployment benefits extension bill while complaining that in doing so he missed the Kentucky basketball game! He then caved when he realized that the Senate was willing to stay all night to pass the bill as soon as he left the chamber.
This time he has put a hold on two more Obama nominees.
Michael Punke has been nominated by the Obama administration to hold the position of Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and was unanimously approved by the Senate Finance Committee (of which Sen. Bunning is a member) over three months ago. Yes, that's right...Sen. Bunning was for Punke's nomination before he was against Punke's nomination.
Islam Siddiqui has been picked by the Obama nomination to be the Chief Agriculture Negotiator, a currently unfilled position that puts the U.S. at a disadvantage in trade negotiations. Forty two different food and agricultural groups have banded together to urge his Senate confirmation as quickly as possible to relieve that disadvantage.
But Kentucky Senator Bunning has put an indefinite hold on both nominees. Why? Are they communist sympathizers? Do they have links to Islamic terrorist groups? Forgot to pay taxes? No. There's nothing controversial about either of them. No complaints on them personally at all.
The hold was placed in protest to a new law that bans the sale of flavored tobaccos. Now this might make sense when you consider that Kentucky provides over 80% of the tobacco that is used in flavored cigarillos. But what doesn't make sense is that the law that Sen. Bunning is protesting was not passed by the US. It's a Canadian law passed by the Canadian Parliament! And in reaction to its passage, Sen. Bunning is blocking yet more Obama nominees. (And NO, I can't explain the logic behind this obstruction other than Republicans will do ANYTHING to halt the functioning of the government when its run by Democrats.)
At this point in President Bush's first term, he had 5 unconfirmed nominations. President Obama has 88! And the sad part to this is that it hampers the government from doing what it's supposed to do. Govern! Regardless of who wins an election....the country needs to keep functioning. To do that, you have to have the personnel in place to run things. Republicans are using every parliamentary trick possible to keep those people out of even relatively insignificant positions. Just because!
Perhaps Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said it best on the floor of the Senate earlier this week: "I think you get the picture that this is a list of systematic efforts to undermine the ability of the executive branch to do its job....So I call upon my Republican colleagues who are conducting this attack on the president and his team to honor their constitutional responsibilities to advise and consent, to this list, and if there are a couple key nominees that you have serious concerns about, then indeed let's have that debate here on the floor."
The GOP is trying hard to live up to the media hype of it being the PARTY OF NO! And Sen. Bunning has become the Poster Child for its efforts. It is nothing short of insanity to place a hold on a Senate confirmation of a US nominee over a Canadian law! It's time to stop playing political election games in the Senate and start doing what Senators were elected to do....GOVERN!
Call your Republican Senator and let them know how disappointed you are with thier lack of action!