Blocked Blockhead

I missed this. I knew it was being talked about, and then I don't know where I went.

The Senate blocked President Trump from being able to make recess appointments on Thursday as lawmakers leave Washington for their August break.

[...]

The move, which requires the agreement of every senator, means the Senate will be in session every three business days throughout the August recess.

[...]

The Senate has used the brief sessions to block recess appointments for decades, including last year to keep President Barack Obama from being able to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat.

[...]

The spokesman added on Friday that the Senate was holding the brief sessions because they didn't get a deal on adjourning, not specifically to block the president from making recess appointments.

"So to meet our constitutional requirement of meeting every few days, we’re doing pro formas. We didn’t do it to block Trump," the aide said.

  The Hill

Right.

This action, which is clearly aimed at cutting off any attempt to fire Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as a prelude to defenestrating Robert Mueller, required the unanimous consent of the Senate, which, you may recall, has a Republican majority these days. This would seem to indicate that the president* has lost what Richard Nixon called during the death throes of his own presidency his "political base in Congress." Or in the upper half of it, at any rate.

[...]

The president* went to West Virginia on Thursday night for the purpose of being publicly adored. In addition to spouting off against the whole Russia business, the president* also took a whack at Congress for not giving him what he wanted on healthcare. That was guaranteed to endear him further to Mitch McConnell, and to people like Jeff Flake, Dean Heller, and West Virginia's own Shelley Moore Capito.

[...]

And this is my favorite part:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), doing wrap up for the entire Senate, locked in nine "pro-forma" sessions — brief meetings that normally last roughly a minute.

Lisa Murkowski is going to appear in his dreams for the rest of his life. The odds of his already having agreed to sell Alaska back to Russia get better by the hour.

  Charles P Pierce

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.