Jim Webb

Freshman Senator Jim Webb of Virginia understands warfare. Former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, an assistant Secretary of Defense, a decorated Marine Corps infantry officer from Vietnam, Webb understands that he's in battle with a petulant little bitch of a president.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement saying the White House has told him it planned on making "several" recess appointments — generally frowned upon by lawmakers who balk when their "advise and consent" role is circumvented. (Pravda/FOX)

After the Senate wrapped up its business and the Senators went home for the Thanksgiving recess, Sen. Webb remained. He went up to the the rostrum as the Presiding Officer, called the empty chamber to order and said: "Under the previous order, the Senate stands in recess until Friday." He banged the gavel twice, and then he left. It took 22 seconds.

That middle finger in the face of George Bush formally set in motion the procedures that will keep the Senate open. It's called a pro-forma session. And I love it.

By keeping the Senate in session, Democrats prevent President Bush from skirting around the Constitution by making high-level appointments while Congress is in recess (thus avoiding the process of Senate confirmation).

No more insane judges. No more neo-confederate, anti-gay, anti-women, pro-corporate ideologues getting wingnut welfare jobs in our government.

"We're preserving the Constitution," Senator Webb said, after the pro-forma session. "It's appropriate given how [the Bush administration] is abusing the confirmation process."

Bingo. Webb is from Virginia, he doesn't have to travel as far as any other Democratic Senator. And knowing Webb, he's more than happy to do it.

This is procedural trench warfare. Democrats are playing defense since they lack 60 votes to prevent a Senate filibuster or the two-thirds in both chambers needed to overturn a presidential veto.

"It's one of those small things that can be instantly effective," says Thomas Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It also reflects the utter lack of trust that Democrats have vis-à-vis the president and the belief that he will exploit every opportunity provided him." (source)

The other smart thing Democrats are doing is playing to our retarded media clowns addiction to the "a pox on both your houses" easy explanation for everything political.

When hours after Webb's gavel banged twice, the White House issued a statement whining about the Senate's failure to act on a number of Bush's batshit insane judicial nominees, including a statement by Bush on Thursday adding seven more judges to his list of judges he hopes to confirm, Democrats shot right back:

Reid said that the White house has stalled on Reid's requests for appointments to certain boards that require bipartisan splits such as the Federal Communications Committee, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and others.... (Pravda/FOX)

The media is totally confused about how to tell this story. They're scratching their heads; is this preventing Bush's agenda, or is it because Bush is preventing the Democrats agenda? They're stupid, '...Let's call the whole thing off...'

"Democrats face a tough situation: a Republican president who is just unwilling to compromise on many policies, even if it meant plummeting popular ratings, and a very effective and disciplined Republican minority," says Julian Zelizer, a congressional historian at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.

This is what America elected Democrats to do - oppose and repel the Bush agenda. We need pro-forma sessions every four days to screw Bush even on weekends. We need more and better Democrats and a Democratic President. But this will do until 2009.