"Months of 'Republican obstruction'?" Obama Appoints 15 During Recess

How can there be a significant backlog because of Republican obstruction when the Dems had 60 votes in the Senate until the end of January? Note that Obama was making this clear earlier in the year that he was thinking of doing this.

President Barack Obama, citing months of "Republican obstruction" to his nominees for various administration posts, said he will make recess appointments of 15 nominees, including union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

Mr. Obama's decision to appoint Mr. Becker is a win for labor unions that had helped the president win passage of his health care overhaul. Republicans and business groups had fought Mr. Becker's nomination, saying he wouldn't be impartial on a board that supervises union elections and referees disputes between employers and employees. Mr. Obama said he will also make a recess appointment of Democrat Mark Pearce to the NLRB, but not the pending Republican NLRB nominee, Brian Hayes.

Mr. Obama also said he will fill two top Treasury Department posts by making recess appointments of Jeffrey Goldstein as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance and Michael F. Mundaca as assistant secretary for tax policy.

Mr. Obama telegraphed earlier this year the likelihood that he would use recess appointments to bypass Republican Senate opposition. By the White House count, 217 nominations have been pending before the Senate for an average of 101 days each. Of those nominations, 34 have been awaiting action for more than six months, the White House said in a statement Saturday.