Who’s Running the Country?

In a slow news week that pales in comparison to its marathon predecessors, yesterday’s big news came from the White House—namely, that President Obama had filled the position of Secretary of Commerce with affluent campaign donor (and Chicago scion) Penny Pritzker. The position had been vacant since the summer imbroglio in which Secretary John Bryson fell victim to inexplicable seizures while operating a vehicle. The major headlines from earlier in the week focused on Anthony Foxx, the Charlotte mayor tapped to head the Department of Transportation in the second Obama administration. Even The Onion joined the Cabinet action, publishing a fictitious tale of the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior’s rapid ascent to the White House, after her antecessors in the line of succession succumbed to a calamitous and inexplicable hot-air balloon accident.

Three and a half months into Obama’s second term, it is newsworthy that so many of these positions still need filling. While Senator John Kerry’s quick appointment led to an easy way out of the effervescing Susan Rice entanglement, both the White House and the Senate are finding that stalling replacements for executive posts is a great way to play politics well after the November election. There are, of course, some benefits to this—was any American business really stifled by the 10-month vacancy in the Department of Commerce, a bureau with responsibilities so nebulous that it deals with not only business programs, but also with oceans policy, weather forecasting, and tourism? But, as much as it pains to me to utter, we do have a government for a reason; our elected leaders should be able to make sure it functions in the fashion it was designed.

As The New York Times reported yesterday, the executive branch is suffering from a near unprecedented amount of vacancies, and this problem is not relegated solely to the inconsequential departments. While Kerry has held his perch at Foggy Bottom for months, nearly a quarter of the top positions at State remained unfilled. Perhaps Bolivia wouldn’t be kicking us out of the country if there were someone (anyone) around the office to tell Kerry that referring to Latin America as the U.S.’s “backyard” wasn’t a very good idea. The Department of Homeland Security is missing its two top cybersecurity officials—even as the White House argues for a more extensive approach to what is become the rather substantial threat of Chinese cyber attacks.

While one would have to respect the White House if it buckled down and admitted the inefficiencies within the federal government—as Rick Perry said, we need to eliminate the Departments of Commerce, Education, and Oops—funding agencies that lack the requisite personnel to perform their duties is a pointless operation. Obviously, the blame for this situation rests with both Obama and the advisers and consenters on Capitol Hill. Yet, while the White House has reproached the Republican Party for going to “extraordinary lengths…to obstruct the confirmation process,” it should not go unnoticed that Obama’s choices for a majority of these positions have remained unannounced, leading to little progress toward the return of an efficacious government (or at least a government as efficacious as such a naturally inefficient organ could possibly be).

Blaming the GOP has gotten the president pretty far, so it is understandable that he would want to throw some more animadversion their way. But in this case, it is not the job of the Senate to come up with its own solutions to these problems. Only Obama has the authority to “appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United State.” That these appointments require approval of the Senate is not sufficient reason for the president to shirk one of the legitimate powers the Constitution actually bestows upon the nation’s chief executive.

The president may be correct when he claims that the advent of a polarized Washington has created a hypercritical Congress. Still, that doesn’t mean he can just give up, muttering a feeble “I tried my hardest.” When you are the President of the United States, you have to do more than try—you must lead. That may mean that nominees that would have previously passed with flying colors, such as Department of Labor pick Tom Perez, will have to be preemptively borked (or, more accurately but less eloquently, “Miersed”). So be it. If the president wanted a better hand with which to work, maybe he should have been a better surrogate on his Democratic allies’ campaigns. At this point, Obama needs to assess the situation and put forth the best nominees he can come up with. And he has to do it with some celerity, at least nodding at the fable that these appointments have real, meaningful work to do.

Even with the surfeit of vacant posts, the government must go on. Unfortunately, that means making a broken system even more defective. There is only so much an acting deputy can do in lieu of his nonexistent capo, and as The New York Times reports, that authority stops short at making actual decisions. While Cicero assured us that “a nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious,” we now get to see if a nation can survive with nobody at the helm. If not, it might be time for Obama and the GOP to come to an accord and let a couple of fools and czars take the reins for the time being.

John F. M. Kocsis ’15, a Crimson editorial writer, is a government concentrator in Eliot House. His column appears on alternate Fridays. Follow him on Twitter @jfmkocsis