chairman howard dean. i just want to go to what jay carney said about this today because there is a little bit of a technical problem in this one. and that is that the republicans are saying, wait main, the senate wasn't really in recess is they had it in pro forma session. so jay carney's response to that is n. an overt attempt to prevent the president from exercising his authority during this period is a gimmick called pro forma sessions which are sessions during which no senate business is conducted but that does not overright the president's constitutional authority to make appointment ts to keep the government running. but your gimmick is my rule. every single thing that runs the united states senate is a rule that someone else can call a gimmick and i for one see a