The Saxbe fix is a mechanism by which the President of the United States, in appointing a current or former Member of the United States Congress whose elected term has not yet expired, seeks to avoid the restriction of the United States Constitution's Ineligibility Clause. That clause prohibits the president from appointing a current or former member of Congress to a position that was created, or to a position for which the pay and/or benefits (collectively "emoluments") were increased, during the term for which that member was elected until the term has expired. The rollback, implemented by an Act of Congress in 1909, reverts the emoluments of the office to the amount they were when that member began his or her elected term. Historically, the restriction has been met with various responses: choosing another nominee, allowing the desired nominee's elected term of office to expire, ignoring the clause entirely, or using a "Saxbe fix" to reduce the offending emoluments. Although the latter mechanism was passed by Congress in 1909, it is named for Senator William Saxbe, who was confirmed as Attorney General in 1973 after Congress reduced the office's salary to the level it had been before Saxbe's term commenced. Since the late 1970s, the use of the "Saxbe fix" has been common. The Saxbe fix has subsequently become relevant as a successful—though not universally accepted—solution for appointments by presidents of both parties, of sitting members of the United States Congress to the United States Cabinet.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxbe_fix
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1836:
Texas Revolution: Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio from the Texans after a 13-day siege. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo
1869:
Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of Elements to the Russian Chemical Society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev
1899:
The German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer registered Aspirin as a trademark. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front, a party closely associated with the Communists, became Prime Minister of Romania. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza
1987:
In the worst maritime disaster involving a British registered ship in peacetime since 1919, the ferry M/S Herald of Free Enterprise capsized while leaving the harbour of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 193 on board. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Herald_of_Free_Enterprise
1988:
In Operation Flavius, the British Special Air Service killed Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell while they were conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulnerary (adj): 1. Useful or used for healing wounds; healing, curative.
2. (archaic, rare) Causing wounds, wounding http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulnerary
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
You imagine that what you can't understand is either spiritual or does not exist. The conclusion is quite wrong; rather there are obviously a million things in the universe that we would need a million quite different organs to understand ... someone blind from birth cannot imagine the beauty of a landscape, the colors of a painting or the shadings of an iris. He will imagine them as something palpable, edible, audible or olfactory. Likewise, if I were to explain to you what I perceive by the senses you do not have, you would interpret it as something that could be heard, seen, touched, smelled or tasted; but it is not like that. --Cyrano de Bergerac http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cyrano_de_Bergerac