| NightlyPoe said: This seems to be a case of it only being unconstitutional or even controversial because Trump did it. There are a ton of examples of presidents making appointments like Whitaker's going back to the beginning of the republic. Well over a hundred by some estimates I've seen. I'm open to the suggestion that presidents can abuse this power, (Clinton did and Congress passed a law setting limits) or even that it's been unconstitutional for the past 230 years and we're only just now realizing now that it's been bad. But it's hard to escape the notion that the sudden panic over the Constitution being trampled by temporary appointments is simply because of the man making the appointment in a manner that virtually all his predecessors also followed at one point or another. |
It's controversial because it's attached to something that is already a controversy. Most politicians are careful not to make more waves around a controversial issue but Trump has never cared about that. A referee in a football game makes a disputed call in the middle of the game that doesn't seem to have an effect on the score and no one really cares. They make that same call on a play that determines who wins the game or not and it becomes a controversy. Context and timing are the difference.
