SPQR (Latin For "The Senate Is Irrelevant")

The Divine Caesar Obama Invictus has decided he can't wait any longer for the processes of the Living Constitution to rubber stamp his appointments to the various boards of proconsuls. It was time to get on with the business of fundamentally transforming America, at least in the proconsulships of Labor and Consumer Protection. Caesar (also spelled Czar) is delegating his authority to proconsuls of like mind. (Third time is the charm? If this post disappears, I'm going to give up and hope tomorrow's a better day)

In addition, he has instituted rule by fiat, ignoring the Constitution, Senate rules, precedent, and the res publica. The rules and precedent, growing from the musty old Constitution, allow for recess appointments. But it took this Caesar to take the decision of when the Senate is in recess away from the Senate in order to place that decision in his own imperial hands. You see, previous Caesars also made recess appointments, but they left it in the hands of the Senate itself to determine when they were actually in recess.

On occasion, in order to avoid Caesar placing some of his more dangerous personal pets in high positions during a recess, the Senate would remain in session by the device of "pro forma" sessions. A few Senators would hang around, making official (but largely meaningless) speeches and comments. The Constitution says that if the Senators are entirely absent for more than three days, it is in recess. A formal recess ruling is helpful, but not necessary. So the Senators appear on the floor briefly at least every third day to make their presence known and official. Which is exactly what was happening when Caesar announced the appointments.

Recess appointments have been done by Caesars of both the Plebeian and Patrician Parties. But in those cases, the Senate itself had determined that it was in recess. This seems to be the first time (at least as far as Senate records indicate) that Senators were performing their pro forma duties, only to be blindsided by Caesar making recess appointments anyway. It is unlikely that Caesar is unaware of this difference because he was at one time a professor of constitutional law at the Imperial Academy of Law at the University of Chicago. Though imperial historians Pliny and Tacitus did not mention this in their histories, it is common knowledge that Caesar knows the Constitution better than anyone else. It's alive! It's alive!

The pro forma Senators were there because forty-six Patrician Senators had earlier petitioned Caesar not to make the current appointments after having already rejected one of the nominees, only to be entirely ignored by the imperial personage. Prior to his elevation to the imperial throne, this Caesar (then merely a Senator from the Province of Illinois) had decried the recess appointment of John Bolton as imperial minister to the empire of the United Nations as being an insult to the prerogatives of the Senate. The previous Caesar, Bush Secundus, made that appointment when the Senate was, by its own rules, in formal recess.

Caesar says that the Senate refused to accept his nominee for proconsul of Consumer Protection because they don't like the underlying legislation passed by a previous Senate (with the concurrence of the Plebes). Caesar's alternate imperial title is Caesar Obvious. Instead of multiple agencies making decisions about consumer protection with Senate oversight, Caesar has now appointed a proconsul who will have control over the minutiae of every financial transaction conducted in America. The appointee, Richard Cordray, has sworn allegiance to every jot and tittle of Caesar's financial agenda. The dismantling of the private right to contract is in his sights.

Over at the Labor Department, Caesar has recess appointed three proconsuls, all at once. Two are members of the Plebeian Party and will be regulating the lives of owners and wage slaves with a strong preference for the slaves. The third is a member of the Patrician Party, but has strong ties to one of the current Plebeian proconsuls.

Caesar is clearly on a progressive course. When his empire is threatened, he must act, with or without the advice and consent of those doddering old Senators. The people must be protected from themselves and the recalcitrant Senate. Only a great Ceasar can do that. Ave Caesar.