Anointed, Not Appointed -

Anointed, Not Appointed - New York Times:

"George W. Bush's high-handed attitude toward his own majority in Congress keeps getting worse, and we keep waiting for the Republicans to notice they are being insulted.
The latest case in point is President Bush's appointment last week of the next two public trustees for Social Security and Medicare. Normally, those positions require confirmation by the Senate. But leaders from both parties had made it clear they objected to the president's choices. Then the president did an end run, installing his candidates while Congress was in recess.

It's not unheard of for a president to use a recess appointment to overcome stonewalling from his opposition. But in the past, such maneuvers have been treated by the White House as emergencies; this one seems to regard them as nothing unusual. "