Invisible Congress

So the Senate is still gaveling those pro forma sessions, even though late Friday the President politely informed them that they don't exist.

Because the bill has so much in it for veterans and active members of the Armed Forces, Bush apparently doesn't dare sign an affirmative veto. Instead, he'll pretend it... just went away on its own.

But this bill was presented to the president for his signature on December 19th. It's been eight days since then, not counting Sundays as the Constitution outlines. Seven if you give an extra day for Christmas. Hasn't been ten days yet.

Not only that, but you may recall that the Senate has remained in session all this time explicitly to prevent trickery like this. The most oft-cited reason was to prevent recess appointments, but the pro forma sessions -- the most recent of which was held today, yes, the very day Bush claimed there was no session -- also serve to avoid adjournment, and therefore the pocket veto.

But not in Bushworld. In Bushworld, these sessions don't count. Because he says so.

And if Bush thinks the Senate's sessions don't count, what's stopping him from making recess appointments?

How much more abuse can this Congress stand?

There was some confusion about whether or not this was a legitimate use of the pocket veto, since the House created the spending bill, and technically they weren't in session. It depends on how the Constitution is interpreted. It may not surprise you to know that I'm not going with the reading from the guys who think Article II allows them to torture.

Constitutional questions aside, Bush is vetoing the defense bill. And while the cover story is that he's doing it to save Iraqi government assets from claims of reparations dating back to the Saddam regime (not "pork," as a commenter here claimed), it could be for any number of reasons (provisions conditioning funding for missile defense, Congressional requests for intelligence assessments, etc).

But regardless, we know how this should be handled politically, right? Bush is vetoing a bill that includes a pay raise for soldiers and increased medical care for veterans. That should really be the only discussion of the bill from national Democrats. Your President just took the troops' pay raise away. Any reference to the President should include the phrase "who just vetoed a pay raise for the troops." Any reference to REPUBLICANS should include the phrase "whose leader just vetoed a pay raise for the troops." It should be made absolutely radioactive.

Of course, I expect none of that.