This is a bone-chilling abuse of power by Obama.

(The Hill) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who previously held pro forma sessions to block recess appointments by President George W. Bush, said Wednesday he supported President Obama’s decision to ignore those sessions to push through one of his key nominees.

“I support President Obama’s decision,” he said in a statement.

The White House announced Wednesday that Obama planned to recess appoint Richard Cordray to be director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). However, Republicans immediately cried foul about the move, arguing that the Senate is not in recess, making the move illegitimate. given that the holiday break has been broken up by brief pro forma sessions expressly intended to block such appointments.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the novel move “arrogantly circumvented the American people.”

However, the White House maintains that those sessions, typically held every three days and lasting a few seconds, are not legitimate and can be ignored for the purpose of making recess appointments. The administration cited lawyers that advised President George W. Bush when he was in office who argued that such brief sessions should be discounted [Bush never followed through — ed.].

On the other side of that argument at that time was Reid, who began holding pro forma sessions in 2007 to block Bush nominees.

“I had to keep the Senate in pro-forma session to block the Bradbury appointment. That necessarily meant no recess appointments could be made,” he said on the Senate floor in 2008, as Democrats blocked a potential recess appointment of Steven Bradbury to be the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration. Bradbury is one of the attorneys cited by the Obama White House in justifying the Cordray move.