President Barack Obama has taken advantage of Congress’ holiday recess to install James Cole as deputy attorney general without Senate approval. And New York Republican Rep. Peter King, incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, isn’t too happy about it, The Hill reports.

He terms Cole’s appointment “absolutely shocking” and says it may end up as one of the worst appointments Obama makes during his presidency.

“I strongly oppose the recess appointment of James Cole to lead the national security team at the Department of Justice,” King says in a statement. “The appointment indicates that the Obama Administration continues to try to implement its dangerous policies of treating Islamic terrorism as a criminal matter.”

He calls Cole a “left-wing ideologue who places terrorists in the same categories as drug peddlers."