We need to make some real changes

There are many lessons we as a nation should be learning from the experience of the Bush administration.  I have already posted a previous diary stating my belief that we should re-examine the notion of the presidency itself, but that didn't meet with much support here.  I don't know why many so called progressives are actually clinging to the status quo, but I will leave that alone for now.  I have another idea about a constitutional amendment we should all be considering that I think might meet with more approval. We'll see.

Our constitution allows the president to make "recess appointments" when the Senate in is recess, that apparently are allowed to remain in the appointed office for the duration of the president's term, or as it is actually stated in the constitution:

"The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."

It looks from this language like the appointment would expire when Congress recesses again, but that just opens the door for the president to reissue a new commission to the same person (or someone else, if he/she wishes), i.e another recess appointment.  In any case, it appears that those appointed in recess appointments do not ever need to go through a Senate confirmation.

Bush has blatantly abused this power on more than one occasion to appoint someone that didn't stand a chance of being confirmed in the Senate, even when his party had the majority.  He has shown us that we can't always trust our president to do what's right (in this, and in many other areas), and that the only way we can guarantee that our democratic processes are honored is to change the laws to remove the discretion of the president to subvert them.

Therefore, I assert that at least as long as we retain this antiquated notion of an individual executive (i.e. president), we should amend the final sentence of Article II, section 2 by simply changing the word "end" to "beginning," forcing the president to find someone who will meet the standards of the Senate as soon as they reconvene from recess.