Obama's Recess Appointments and Bush's

The Obama statement announcing his intention to make 15 recess appointments is a good example of the way he has abandoned his original stated goal of making fundamental change in the way Washington does business. The statement says, "President Bush had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency," and it goes on to list the names of 15 people that President Obama will appoint. Mr. Obama campaigned on doing things differently from Mr. Bush; now he seems intent instead on matching Mr. Bush right down to the exact number of individuals whose presence in the executive branch will testify to the president's sour relations with Congress. And it's all announced in a Saturday press release, a classic inside-Washington tactic to minimize the impact of an unfavorable news development. If Mr. Obama thought the Democrats were going to regain a filibuster-proof majority in the 2010 elections, there'd be no reason to go this route; clearly, he expects his party to lose seats. Alas for him, he can't get the candidates confirmed like the health care bill, through "reconciliation."