We already knew that, of course, but it’s nice to see Jake Tapper of ABC News pointing it out.

Long story short: Obama recess appointed Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services today, allowing him t0 bypass the Senate confirmation process until the end of next year.

Why bypass the constitutional confirmation process? Berwick openly supports wealth redistribution, rationing of health care, and the single-payer system in Britain. It’s quite possible he never would have been confirmed, and for good reason.

But Obama didn’t say that. He said the recess appointment is necessary because Senate Republicans were stalling. Those evil Republicans trying to play partisan politics with a partisan process. One problem: He’s full of crap.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., echoed the president’s suggestion, saying that “Republican lockstep stalling of Don’s nomination was a case study in cynicism and one awful example of how not to govern.”

But Republicans were not delaying or stalling Berwick’s nomination.

Indeed, they were eager for his hearing, hoping to assail Berwick’s past statements about health care rationing and his praise for the British health care system.

“The nomination hasn’t been held up by Republicans in Congress and to say otherwise is misleading,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which would have held Berwick’s hearing.

Grassley said that he “requested that a hearing take place two weeks ago, before this recess.”

Berwick’s nomination was sent to the Senate in April, and his hearing had not been scheduled because he was participating in the “standard vetting process,” a Democratic aide on the Senate Finance Committee told ABC News.

Bottom line: Not only were Republicans not stalling his hearings, but Senate Republicans wanted his hearings to come as quickly as possible. They would love to have an Obama appointee support health care rationing, wealth redistribution, and British health care on television.

No hearings had been scheduled by the majority. Berwick never returned the standard questionnaire. And:

But speaking not for attribution, Democratic officials say that neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., nor Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, were eager for an ugly confirmation fight four months before the midterm elections.

Democrats didn’t want the hearings. They wanted to stall, recess appoint the socialist nominee, and then blast Republicans for stalling hearings the Republicans wanted. The Age of Obama.

Via HAH.