Citigroup's Executive Vice President Candi Wolff has developed an interest in the future of our democracy, now that Richard Cordray has been appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here Wolff asks some serious questions about the controversial move by Obama, outlined in this news release:
What precedent has been set? Each Administration has to weigh questions of political expedience against matters of Constitutional principle. It goes without saying that every decision made within one Administration can impact not just the next, but future Administrations as well. Has this action opened the door for future presidents to make highly controversial appointments without regard to Congressional advice and consent? Will the American people view this action with acceptance, ambivalence, or take it to be a Constitutional challenge?
Is bipartisanship dead in the water? If things weren't tense before, the political stakes have been upped. Republicans in Congress may now see even less reason to seek compromise between the GOP and President Obama. Add to that a hostile election-year environment and even the most non controversial piece of legislation may not make it in 2012.
Woe, the Constitutional precedents, the future, and *gasp* how will the Congressional Democrats and Republicans get any work done together again? Oh, wait...
Certainly thoughts of the Constitution and precedents danced in the heads of Citigroup's top execs as those billions of your tax dollars, courtesy of the federal government came pouring in. What patriots.
