The Berwick Timeline

The White House and surrogates maintain that time was of the essence for Donald Berwick to start serving as Health Czar, and that left no choice but to make him a recess appointment -- no time for Congressional hearings and a vote in the Senate.

But consider this timeline:

• President Barack Obama took 495 days to nominate Berwick, and
• For the next 79 days, Democrats refused to hold a hearing for him.