President Barack Obama plans to use an executive "nuclear option" to appoint Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, circumventing Republican opposition by making the appointment between sessions of Congress. The Associated Press broke the story that the president will use a recess appointment to finally install Cordray at the head of the bureau, after Senate Republicans blocked his appointment last month. "Obama's decision to make a recess appointment is certain to cause an uproar from Capitol Hill to Wall Street," the AP reports. "He is essentially declaring the Senate's short off-and-on legislative sessions a sham intended to block his appointments." Coming the day after the first votes in the Republican primary, the move serves to grab the national spotlight from the Republican party, and to show Obama can be a "bare-knuckle" political fighter when it comes to battling an opposing legislature, the AP reports. Obama is scheduled to speak in Ohio at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday. 

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Adam Martin