OK, so Obama made some noises about recess appointments, and the Republicans let 27 nominees get an up or down vote, the ones that do not matter.

Well, that’s good.

What is not good is that Obama followed up with signals that there is no need for recess appointments (BTW, Clinton made about 150, and GWB made about 200).

No, when you have them down, you put your foot on their neck.

If they block your Transportation Security Administration (TSA) nominee, as they did. because they don’t like Barack Obama’s position on union rights for the employees, you don’t back down, you appoint Teamsters President James Hoffa as your TSA chief. Hell, if they were still alive, you appoint his dad, Jimmy Hoffa, or maybe Walter Ruther or Eugene V. Debs during the recess.

Unfortunately, as Ezra Klein notes, in getting this small concession, Obama stated that recess appointments are a, “rare but not unprecedented step,” which makes any attempt to do recess appointments in the future an invitation to your standard Republican sh%$ storm of phony outrage, and as Matthew Yglesias notes, the Obama administration really does not have time for this crap.

Stupid, really stupid.