Jon Stewart on Thursday took on the latest Republican freak-out: President Obama’s “unprecedented” power grab. What could that possibly be?
“Finally!” Stewart said. “Elected officials and our volunteer punditocracy speaking truth to power, standing up against, I’m assuming, the recent codifying of indefinite detention of Americans, or, perhaps, the unrestricted and secret use of drones that rain death from the sky, or maybe the president’s most recent outrage, the institution of mandatory Sharia school lunch.”
Nope. We’re talking about the president’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “So Congress created a bureau to protect consumers’ financial interests in 2010,” Stewart said. “Now the president is, not two years later, hiring someone to run it. What kind of monster-dot-com is he? How is filling a position that Congress created an arrogant, lawless and banana republic abuse of power? That’s use of power.”
But Republicans are angry because the Senate is “technically” in session. “I watch C-SPAN for a living and I haven’t seen Congress in session,” Stewart said. “A Congressional session is not like a shooting star.”
Watch Stewart try to open a child-proof bottle of aspirin in the time it takes the Senate to gavel in and out:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Commission: Impossible | ||||
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David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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