Yesterday, the Senate Appropriation Committee held a hearing to examine the budget of the White House Office of Management and Budget (not the federal budget, but the budget of OMB itself). During the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) questioned OMB Director Rob Portman on a number of issues.

The New York Times reports that the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), responsible for conducting nonpartisan election research, down played the findings of experts that there was modest voter fraud around the nation. The EAC instead issued a report that concluded "there is a great deal of debate on the pervasiveness of fraud in elections as well as what constitute the most common acts of fraud or intimidation." The released report endorses justifications for voter identification laws and the assertion made by Republican politicians that voter fraud is pervasive.

In today's issue of Roll Call, Norm Ornstein — a political pundit and scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute — articulates a rather damning assessment of recess appointment power (reprinted on the AEI website). Ornstein points out the danger of precedent in forming executive power. He then calls for Congress to stand up against President Bush's most recent batch of recess appointments including that of Susan Dudley. Every time a president abuses a power like this one, stretching the circumstances under which he will use recess appointments, it becomes a precedent for his successors, who will use his actions as a base point to stretch the power even further. The more the power is used with impunity, the more the core principles of the separation of powers are eroded. So what is a Congress to do? The only answer is to use its own powers to make clear to the president that there is a cost, and a serious one, to such behavior. Specifically, Ornstein suggests hitting the White House and these illegitimate appointees where it hurts: in the wallet. Congress could easily withhold the salary and other perks from embattled former nominee Sam Fox, and otherwise "make White House operations more difficult without cutting essential services." Ornstein also suggests this whole recess appointment mishigas is unconstitutional. In addition to the explicit language of Article 2 Section 2 Clause 3, Orstein cites America's original political genius, Alexander Hamilton. In Federalist paper No. 67, Hamilton articulates the caution with which America should consider the power of the recess appointment.

Craig excerpts an interesting article below that reminds us that there was once a time when the median wage tracked productivity- or, as I like to think, a time when people were paid what they earned.