The five-member FERC board can only have three members from the same political party, and in 2006 the board contained three Republicans. Trying to staff the board vacancies, President George W. Bush asked Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) for a recommendation. Reid picked Wellinghoff, who was a registered independent. Bush nominated Wellinghoff to hold a Democratic position on the board, filling a post that would run through June 2008; the Senate re-confirmed Wellinghoff in December 2007 to a five-year term that expires in June 2013.

Jesus H Christ!  Dubya had Dingy Harry do his vetting for him?  There's the fuggin problem with moderates right there.  They aren't worth a damn and they open doors for disasters down the road.

But the president is responsible for choosing the board's chairman.

And, to everyone's surprise...

In 2009, Obama asked Wellinghoff to serve as the interim chair at the FERC while the president considered other candidates. In March 2009, Obama chose to remove the interim label from Wellinghoff's title.

Well, no sh!t.  Chairman SoetorObama at Gummint Motors is trying to peddle his crappy plug-in Volts to the sheeple.  Who else would ObaMao want running a Jimmah Carter created 'independent' gummint agency regulating energy other than the dipsh!t EcoTard that wrote the plan for useless plug-in cars.