Slipping into the Recesses of the Mind

President Obama's recent recess appointments--Richard Cordray, former Ohio Attorney General and now head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and three new members to the NLRB--have caused a firestorm of criticism.  Questions on the constitutionality of these appointments have abounded.  Here are some of strong criticisms and charges that have been leveled:

Recess appointments [are] ‘the wrong thing to do.’ “‘It’s the wrong thing to do."

A recess appointee is ‘damaged goods… we will have less credibility.’ “To some degree, he’s damaged goods… somebody who couldn’t get through a nomination in the Senate. And I think that that means that we will have less credibility…” 

‘An end run around the Senate and the Constitution.’

‘They are mischievous.’ “Also, understand this: We have had a difficult problem with the President now for some time. We don’t let him have recess appointments because they are mischievous, and unless we have an agreement before the recess, there will be no recess. We will meet every third day pro forma, as we have done during the last series of breaks.”

'Troubling.' “When you have an appointment that is this critical and this sensitive, and the president basically says he’s going to ignore the will of the senate and push someone through, it really is troubling.” 

Oh, I'm sorry. I must have gotten some notes mixed up.  The following quotes were from then-Senator Obama, then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and Senator Dick Durbin on the supposed Constitution-shredding recess appointment of John Bolton as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. by President George W. Bush.  Whoops.