Obama Makes Six Recess Appointments

The president uses Congress's adjournment to fill a range of posts.

Updated: December 30, 2010 | 8:47 a.m.
December 29, 2010 | 5:40 p.m.

Updated at 8:40 a.m. on December 30.

The White House announced a list of six recess appointments on Wednesday, including James Cole, a former independent monitor at AIG, as deputy attorney general, and Robert Stephen Ford for the controversial position of ambassador to Syria. Norman Eisen, a former Obama adviser and ethics czar in the White House counsel's office, received a plum ambassadorship in Prague.

The six were part of a group of 38 civilian executive and judicial nominations that were stalled on the Senate calendar before the body recessed at the end of the year.

Despite Cole's nomination having cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, his appointment had been held up for over five months because of concerns that he failed to recognize risky practices while helping to oversee AIG, which was bailed out by the government for $85 billion. But Cole had the support of much of the legal community and is a friend of Attorney General Eric Holder. The announcement that Cole would be appointed during the recess drew praise from Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who called the hold on the nominee “unnecessary and wrong.”

Although Ford is a highly regarded diplomat, his nomination languished for more than 10 months because of concern in Congress about re-establishing full diplomatic ties with Syria. The United States withdrew its ambassador in 2005 because of Syria’s suspected involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Ford appointment is a sign of the Obama administration’s seriousness about building stronger ties with Syria to help isolate Iran and accomplish other U.S. goals in the region.

The appointments have come with criticism from the GOP. Among the most vocal was Rep. Peter King, R-NY, who called the naming of Cole as deputy attorney general "one of the worst appointments" of Obama's presidency. Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Post, she was "deeply disappointed" by Obama's decision because it will send a message to the Syrian regime "that it can continue to pursue its dangerous agenda and not face any consequences from the U.S." Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., told the Los Angeles Times, "It is always better for controversial nominees such as this one to go through the proper channels."

The other appointments include ambassadors to Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, and Turkey, as well as the Public Printer of the United States, who heads the Government Printing Office.

Obama most recently made four recess appointments in August. This round of six will bring his recess appointment total to 28.

A full list of today's appointees follows: