Run Away Run Away

President Obama has chosen to appoint Donald Berwick to the office that administers Medicare and Medicaid.  But instead of going through the confirmation process that the Democrats were certain to win with their 59 seat majority, he chose to make a recess appointment.  Without even trying to get Mr. Berwick confirmed in clear contravention of Constitutional precedent, Senatorial tradition and even common sense.  John Podhoretz speculates on what is going on:

So what's going on here?

First, it appears Obama likes to muscle things through. It makes him feel like he's cutting through the nonsense and getting things done.

This unorthodox and questionable move is of a piece with his administration's bullying of Chrysler creditors last year -- insisting, in contravention of eight centuries of common law, that the contracts those creditors signed with Chrysler should simply be ignored so as to get the United Auto Workers the deal it wanted.

But procedure, precedent and tradition exist for good reason; ignoring and undermining them blazes a path to political disorder.

Second, this is as glaring an admission as there is that Obama and his people know they've lost the public on health care. Rather than using these hearings to bolster popular support for the landmark legislation they rammed through in the spring, they can't bear to submit to public questioning about it.

By running away from this fight, Obama is signaling that the possibility of repealing the health-care monstrosity before it really begins to sink its teeth into the American system by 2014 is very real indeed.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dodging_health_care_fight_l0k2G0zM3ea7x5OhA1VpwM#ixzz0t6LUpf7w