Politics led to Obama’s recess appointments

President Obama, after Senate Republicans blocked his nominations for months, finally took the bull by the horns with the announcement of 15 recess appointments over the last weekend in March, resulting in another specious argument by Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Grassley claims that “these individuals will take their jobs without the public knowing whether they have experience that bears negatively (or positively) on their ability to serve the taxpayers.” Really?

Alan Bersin, nominated seven months ago for commissioner for the U.S. Customs and Border protection, is an Oxford Rhodes scholar, Yale Law School graduate, and has served as U.S. attorney in California, Justice Department unit head for U.S.-Mexico border affairs, head of San Diego school system, Secretary of Education for California, and Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

Grassley, ranking member of Senate Finance, the vetting committee, certainly had possession of Bersin's curriculum vitae. He knew Bersin's job qualifications. So why the seven-month holdup? Politics as usual, it seems.

Trish Nelson

Iowa City