The Divine Comity: Republicans Caved on Obama’s Nominees
On the right, the scale of the loss was felt immediately. It could only be interpreted with sickness or with silence. “Senate GOP caves again,” tweeted the table-banging radio host Mark Levin. The Club for Growth refused to comment. Republican attrition had been quite effective in gumming up agencies, for quite a long time. Now, Republicans weren’t even getting meaningful concessions. There were “no structural changes” in how the CFPB would work, according to the deal-friendly Sen. Bob Corker.
Democrats had sacrificed Richard Griffin and Sharon Block, the two NLRB members serving thanks to recess appointments that a D.C. circuit panel later deemed illegal. In return, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the majority party was “talking about Craig Becker.” Becker was the first NLRB nominee that the GOP had filibustered. Rush Limbaugh had called him a communist.
“Now you might have the return of Becker—you could make it a movie,” said Graham with a dark laugh. “I think the NLRB needs to operate. I get that. The problem with how the president picked these two guys went far deeper than any problem with the NLRB.”