Reid threatens recess appointment of all outstanding Obama nominees

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threatened on Friday that he would recommend the White House make recess appointments of all 90 outstanding executive nominees if he did not receive cooperation from the GOP for confirmation through the Senate's advise and consent function.

"If something doesn't break here I am going to recommend to the president that he recess-appoint all of these nominees,” said Reid. "[E]very single one. It's not as if there isn't some way to respond to this."

Most Republicans in the Senate remain furious with President Obama for his January recess appointments of several executive nominations — a move they say was a gross violation of the U.S. Construction. 

As late as Friday afternoon, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) warned from the Senate floor that the move could relegate the Senate's Constitutional "advise and consent" function to the dustbins of history.

"If allowed to stand, President Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional assertion of the recess appointment power could result … in routine circumvention the Senate’s Advice and Consent function," he warned. 

Obama's controversial appointments served to cause some Senate Republicans, including Lee, to redouble their efforts to block even non-controversial appointments as retribution.

But Reid said on Friday that Republicans were blocking the well-qualified nominees "out of spite" and said it was unfair to cripple the Obama administration but depriving them of the appointees. 

"These are the president's nominations and he should have the right to have these people working in his administration," he said.