I’m no Villager, but it struck me there might be more than a few Beltway dog whistles in the following little story by Carl Hulse in the Times:

Fearing that President Bush would again use a Congressional recess to install disputed executive branch appointees without Senate confirmation, Democrats convened the Senate for the first of four microsessions to be held during the holiday break, precisely to thwart such an end run.

“I am glad to see the leadership stepped up here,” said Jim Webb, the junior senator from Virginia, called upon by the majority to open the Senate with a skeleton staff for the express purpose of immediately closing it down.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, chose to schedule the so-called pro forma sessions because Mr. Bush took advantage of past recesses to install nominees including John R. Bolton, as ambassador to the United Nations, and, most recently, Sam Fox, a donor to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, as ambassador to Belgium. This time, Democrats were particularly suspicious of plans to appoint as surgeon general a nominee they oppose.

“This is the first time that pro formas have been used to block recess appointments,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid.

Mr. Reid said he would be willing to consider some of the president’s more contentious nominees as long as the White House moved forward with Democratic choices for regulatory bodies like the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Excellent. Now Reid should go ahead and block everything. The Republicans are; why shouldn’t we? Tit-for-tat is a highly successful strategy, after all, even though so far the Democrats have applied it only to members of their own caucus, and their base.

Anyhow, the possible dog-whistles:  Read more