WASHINGTON/CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A defiant President Barack Obama on Wednesday took his boldest action yet to show voters he will confront Republicans, announcing he will bypass Congress and install nominees into politically sensitive jobs overseeing consumer lending and the labor force. Obama will make recess appointments placing Richard Cordray in charge of the new Consumer Financial ...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama announced today that he will circumvent the Senate and appoint a head of the new financial protection bureau while Congress is on break, a move that has Republicans seeing red.

A defiant President Barack Obama, tired of Senate Republicans stalling his nominee to lead a new consumer protection agency, put him in charge Wednesday over their opposition.

Barack Obama engineered a pre-election row Wednesday by bypassing Republicans to appoint a new US consumer watchdog chief, vowing to fight for the middle class every second he is president.

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Richard Cordray, speaks during his visits with William and Endia Eason, not pictured, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, at their home in Cleveland, Ohio. In a defiant display of executive power, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will buck GOP opposition and name Cordray as the nation's chief consumer watchdog.