GOT THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD -- I SUMMON YOU HERE, MY LOVE: Hey, I was just wondering, how exactly does someone nominate a person for an office that requires confirmation? I don't mean how is the candidate vetted -- there's a lot of information about that. I mean, ministerially, how is a person nominated? For a position like Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, does Obama just have a press conference and say, "I nominate Elena Kagan; ball's in your court, Senate"? Or is there some sort of form he has to fill out, like an executive order or a designation of beneficiaries of his life insurance policy? On the one hand, the government loves its paper, and getting a cc of that memo would be a nice framable memento for the nominee (how much would you pay for an original of the Harrold Carswell memo?). On the other hand, it seems like a bit of unnecessary paperwork. And assuming that paperwork is required, how is it transmitted to the Senate? Does it go by messenger to the Sergeant at Arms, by .pdf to HReid@Senate.Gov, or by U.S. Mail to some clerk?
Just curious.
Incidentally, in the interest of heading off any discussion whatsoever about today's nominee -- including not just political discussion but also "I knew her when" talk -- commenters are instructed to pretend that today's nominee was Brigadier General Amos T. Halftrack of the long-running syndicated comic strip Beetle Bailey. Commenters who fail to observe this fiction will be met with sternly disapproving facial expressions.
