Craig Becker

(Newser) - Barack Obama is using the presidential prerogative of recess appointments for the first time to bypass a Republican logjam in the Senate. Obama made 15 such appointments today, complaining that GOP senators were blocking his nominees to score "political points." The picks include two nominees backed by unions...

(Newser) - Last night's GOP filibuster of a routine nomination to the National Labor Relation Board left Democrats livid, and considering reforms to stop a filibuster-happy GOP from crippling the Senate. "I'm in my thirty-sixth year. I've never seen anything like it," Sen. Pat Leahy told the Huffington Post . Leahy...

(Newser) - Scott Brown sped up his swearing-in because despite having touted his independence during his Senate campaign, "he's in the tank for the Republicans," says Patrick Kennedy, predecessor Ted Kennedy's son. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman, says Brown suddenly demanded to be seated a week earlier than previously...