Not So Fast: Senate Has a Say on Obama's Successor

By GottaLaff

(via)

This should answer all your questions:

Q: What is the Senate's authority to seat or not seat an appointee like Burris?

A: The Constitution makes the Senate the ultimate arbiter of a senator's qualification and election when it says, in Article I, Section 5, ''Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members ...''

Q: But doesn't a state's governor decide who should fill a Senate vacancy?

A: The Constitution allows governors, if they are authorized by state legislatures, to appoint a senator in the event of a vacancy to serve until the next general election.

Some states restrict this authority [...] In any case, the Senate has final say over whether a governor's pick should be allowed to serve in the Senate.

Q: On what grounds may the Senate refuse to seat Burris?

A: Technically, the Senate doesn't need a specific reason; it sets its own standards for who may serve. But in this case, senators have a rule they might cite requiring an appointment be signed both by the governor and by the secretary of state. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White says he will refuse to sign any Blagojevich appointment. [...]

Q: What if the Senate can't agree?

A. The Senate has, when refusing to seat an appointee, referred the matter to the Rules Committee for investigation. [...]

Q: What happens if Blagojevich is removed and a new governor appoints a different person to the Senate seat?

A: It still would be up to the Senate to determine which person should be seated.

More here.

The ugly Bush stain: Interior Dept. Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto edition

By GottaLaff

That putrid whiff of flatulence you smell? It's Bush... again:

'The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority.' Interior Dept. Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto

In another regulatory action in the waning days of the Bush dictatorship, the Interior Department on Thursday unveiled a new rule that challenges Congress’s authority to prevent mining planned on public lands. Congress has emergency power to stop mineral development, and has used it six times in the last 32 years. The most recent was in June, when it put a three-year moratorium on uranium mining on one million acres near the Grand Canyon. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has ignored that Congressional directive, saying it was procedurally flawed. The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority.

Bush can have all the farewell, maudlin, revisionist interviews he wants, but nothing... nothing... will eliminate the stench he leaves behind after eight years of infecting this country with a rotting, decomposing morgue full of felons hell bent on vaporizing the Constitution.