Original post: The New York Times has a story this morning about the political appointment process, pointing out that just 43 percent of the Obama administration’s senior political positions have been filled:

While career employees or holdovers fill many posts on a temporary basis, Mr. Obama does not have his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.

I think it’s fair to say this has less to do with anything the Obama administration is (or is not) doing, and more to do with institutional dysfunction in the Senate and the sheer number of political jobs. Obama has, in fact, nominated an Army secretary; he named John McHugh to the post back in June. Senators have delayed his confirmation. His nominee for GSA administrator, Martha Johnson, is reportedly being delayed in the Senate because Sen. Kit Bond wants a federal building approved in Kansas City.

And, as the Times notes, he has some 500 senior policymaking posts to fill — not including thousands of other Schedule C jobs, ambassadorships and the like.

But most notable may be the lack of several confirmation votes of particular interest to federal employees. The nomination of Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has been held up for months over concerns over ideas in his academic writings. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed cloture on Sunstein’s nomination, setting up a final vote on confirmation when the Senate returns Sept. 8.

The Senate also took no action on the nomination of Martha Johnson as administrator of the General Services Administration. Her nomination is not controversial, and the delay has frustrated federal workforce leaders such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Senate did clear several notable nominations, including Alejandro Mayorkas as director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, Francis Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health and Robert Abbey as director of the Bureau of Land Management.

The full list of confirmed agency nominees, in alphabetical order:

• Robert Adler, a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission;

• Christopher Bertram, assistant secretary of Transportation;

• Patricia Cahill, member of the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting;

• Julia Clark, general counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority;

• Kevin Cochran, administrator of U.S. Fire Administration;

• Ernest DuBester, member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority;

• Daniel Elliott, member of the Surface Transportation Board;

• Joan Evans, assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs;

• Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of State for near-Eastern affairs;

• Colin Fulton, assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency;

• Alexander Garza, assistant secretary and chief medical officer for the Homeland Security Department;

• Christopher Hart, member of the National Transportation Safety Board;

• Dennis Hightower, deputy secretary of Commerce;

• Craig Hooks, assistant administrator of the EPA;

• Raymond Jefferson, assistant secretary of Labor for veterans’ employment and training;

• Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary of State for oceans, international environmental and scientific affairs

• David J. Kappos, undersecretary for Commerce for intellectual property and director, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

• Susan Kurland, assistant secretary of Transportation;

• Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts;

• James Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities;

• Wilma Lewis, assistant secretary of the Interior;

• James Markowsky, assistant secretary of Energy for fossil energy;

• A. Thomas McLellan, deputy director of the National Drug Control Policy;

• Warren Miller, assistant secretary of Energy for nuclear energy;

• Cranston Mitchell, a commissioner of the U.S. Parole Commission;

• Anne Northup, a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission;

• Maria Otero, undersecretary of State;

• Christopher Schroeder, assistant attorney general;

• Aaron Williams, director of the Peace Corps.

Dr. Regina Benjamin, an Alabama physician, speaks after President Barack Obama announced her nomination for surgeon general Monday in the Rose Garden. AP photo

Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family practice doctor who works with the rural poor in Alabama, is President Barack Obama’s choice for surgeon general, Obama said Monday.

Obama praised Benjamin’s commitment to health care and to providing access to care for those who can’t afford insurance. She is the founder of the Bayou Le Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala., a fishing village, and has served as its chief exective officer since is founding in 1990.

Benjamin has rebuilt the clinic several times, including after it sustain heavy damages by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Benjamin, 52, received her bachelor’s degree in 1979 from Xavier University of Louisiana, attended Morehouse School of Medicine from 1980 to 1982, and earned her doctor of medicine degree in 1984 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Her medical schooling was paid for by the National Health Service Corps, a federal program where medical students pledge to work in underserved areas in exchange for paid tuition, earning one year of free tuition for ever year of service.

Atlanta neurosurgeon and CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was rumored earlier this year to be Obama’s first choice for surgeon general, but Gupta pulled his name from consideration, citing his desire to spend more time on his current work.

Benjamin’s nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

The Senate confirmed Jeffrey Zients‘ nomination Friday. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag welcomed his new deputy for management with this blog post.

Now we wait to see what changes Zients will bring to federal performance management. He’s had a successful track record imbuing positive performance into private sector companies through his work at the Corporate Executive Board Company and the Advisory Board Company.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee approved two nominations by voice vote Monday: W. Craig Fugate for Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator and John Morton for assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Senate may vote this week on their nominations, which aren’t controversial. No vote has been scheduled.

Meanwhile, senators are debating the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for secretary of Health and Human Services Tuesday, with a vote expected later in the day. The vote on her nomination has been delayed almost three weeks, as some Republicans have taken issue with her pro-choice stance and her acceptance of campaign contributions from a Kansas doctor who performs late-term abortions.

She must receive at least 60 votes for her nomination to pass, part of a compromise reached by Senate Democrats and Republicans late last week. She’s expected to have the needed number of votes, but not by much.

Sebelius’ nomination now goes to the full Senate for a vote, the date of which hasn’t yet been announced. Sebelius had a confirmation hearing before the Finance Committee two weeks ago, but Republicans wary with her stances on abortion and Obama’s health care reforms delayed a vote on her nomination until after Congress returned from a two-week recess.

Republican senators Pat Roberts, from Sebelius’ home state of Kansas, and Maine’s Olympia Snowe voted in favor of Sebelius.

Sebelius, currently governor of Kansas, was Obama’s second choice to lead HHS. His first choice, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, stepped down in February after he acknowledged owing more than $140,000 in back taxes for use of a car and driver.

Not until today, at least: The president sent Sunstein’s nomination to the Senate. (You can read the profile I wrote of Sunstein in January here.)

• Roger Baker, nominee for assistant secretary for information and technology, Veterans Affairs. Baker is the former president and chief executive office of Dataline, a technology company in Norfolk, Va. He also is a former chief information officer of the Commerce Department and served on President Barack Obama’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications policy group during his 2008 presidential campaign.

• William Gunn, nominee for general counsel, VA. He represents military members and veterans in his Northern Virginia law practice. He retired in 2005 from the Air Force, where he was a colonel in the JAG corps.

• John U. Sepúlveda, nominee for assistant secretary of human resources, VA. He is a former deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management, appointed in 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton.

• Anne Castle, nominee for assistant secretary for water and science, Interior Department. She is a partner at Holland & Hart in Denver, where she practices water rights and water quality law.

• Mathy Stanislaus, nominee for assistant administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Environmental Protection Agency. He is an environmental lawyer and chemical engineer and champions revelopment of brownfield sites.

• Jo-Ellen Darcy, nominee for assistant secretary of the Army (Civil Works), Defense Department. She is the senior environmental adviser for the Senate Finance Committee.

And in case you’re wondering, it’s not over unpaid taxes, an issue which has befallen a handful of Obama’s other nominees.

Cannon, an environmental law professor at the University of Virginia, said he withdrew because he once served on the board of a nonprofit group currently under investigation.

It has come to my attention that America’s Clean Water Foundation, where I once served on the board of directors, has become the subject of scrutiny. While my service on the board of that now-dissolved organization is not the subject of the scrutiny, I believe the energy and environmental challenges facing our nation are too great to delay confirmation for this position, and I do not wish to present any distraction to the agency.”

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had scheduled a confirmation hearing for Cannon for Thursday.

The Senate has done virtually nothing, for example, to address the glacial pace of confirmations that often leads presidents to expand the White House staff as well as the number of appointees who serve without Senate approval. Although he has submitted the names of nominees to the Senate relatively quickly, President Obama will be lucky if the last of his nearly 500 full-time cabinet and subcabinet officers are confirmed by March 2010.

Obviously the president has made some mistakes with his Cabinet picks. The endless parade of nominees with tax problems — Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis — has not exactly inspired confidence in the vetting process or the integrity of the people being tapped for public service.

But, tax troubles and all, Obama still has 55 nominees pending before the Senate; legislators have confirmed just 43 people in the more than two months of Obama’s presidency.

Congress has a lot on its plate. But you would think confirming Obama’s appointees would be a higher priority.