No recess appointments? It all comes down to: How far do you trust the "word" of the Bush regime?

In case you haven't heard the news, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made a deal, or at least thinks he has made a deal, with the Bush regime which he at least thinks will mean no hideous recess appointments rolling out of the White House while the Senate is in recess this month. (The alternative was not to actually allow the Senate to recess.)

Naturally, no sooner did word of this deal seep out into the real world than skepticism began to be voiced. Here is Swopa's take on Needlenose last night:

From the Department of Scorpion-Frog Negotiations

Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker passed this along today:

Perhaps a little wiser after seven months in the majority, Democrats have strategized to prevent the White House from utilizing some of its sneakier powers while Congress is in recess.

There'll be no recess appointments this time around, Roll Call reports (sub. req.), meaning the White House won't be taking advantage of Congress' vacation to install any contested nominees. That's due to a deal between Bush and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Last recess, the White House made a number of controversial recess appointments, including Swift Boat backer Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium. In order to prevent that sort of thing from happening again, Reid had plotted to keep the Senate in "pro forma" session during the recess -- whereby the Senate floor personnel show up every three days to make it an official session. But now Reid and Bush have made a deal, according to Roll Call. Bush won't make any recess appointments and Reid has promised to move some of his nominees when Senate gets back in session.

Who wants to bet that sometime in the next few weeks, Bush makes some recess appointments anyway?

It may not even be a matter of seeking to appoint someone in particular -- he might just break the deal simply because he can... and he can't resist the temptation.

You have to like the scorpion analogy. However, in fairness to scorpions--real ones, that is, as opposed to those that appear in fables and parables--they don't actually make deals that deny their basic nature. Actual scorpions just do what nature mandates them to do.

Of course, lying compulsively appears to be one of the things that nature mandates Bush regimists to do. Which is another way of saying, in response to Swopa's question "Who wants to bet that sometime in the next few weeks, Bush makes some recess appointments anyway?": Sorry, not us. Sounds like a sucker bet if we ever heard one.