This. Now.

The White House confirmed Wednesday morning that President Obama will announce a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a speech in Ohio later today. Cordray was a well-liked Ohio Attorney General until last year, after he was toppled by the GOP midterm wave in 2010.

Cordray’s an accidental victim of a brazen act of GOP obstruction. They’re refusing to allow an up-or-down vote on any CFPB nominee until the agency itself is fundamentally weakened — an extra-legal attempt to nullify a key portion of an act of law.

This is the first glimmer of hope in a while that there actually IS a plan to deal with Republicans obstructing every single appointment. Too bad it came THREE YEARS into Obama’s term.

Plus, there’s a nice little bit of wonkish maneuvering in this announcement. By appointing Cordray today, he’s in the position until the end of 2013. If he Obama had made the appointment a couple days ago, it would have only been until the end of 2012.

Read the full article at Talking Points Memo.