The Senate seemed to wrap up its last business of the year on Wednesday night. But anyone listening carefully to the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, would have heard him laying out plans for the Senate to work through the holidays -- sort of.
Reid's chief concern is that US President George W. Bush will use a recess to make appointments that would otherwise require Senate approval. And there is one in particular that he wants to stop: that of Steven Bradbury, nominated to be assistant attorney general, who signed secret Justice Department memorandums authorizing harsh interrogation methods that Reid considers to be torture.
Reid said the Senate would carry over until next year dozens of nominations that it has not yet acted on.
But Bradbury's name was one of seven that Reid said were being sent back to the White House, a move that will require Bush to resubmit them.
To prevent recess appointments, the Senate will convene for pro forma sessions throughout the holiday break, with Senator Jim Webb of nearby Virginia presiding over four of them. No other business will be conducted.
So, the formal year-end close of Congress, with the traditional declaration of sine die, will fall to Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island on Dec. 31.
The majority leader said he had considered blocking all pending nominations.
"I thought I could be a Grinch," Reid said, but then said that he had reconsidered.
"I am not going to meet intransigence with intransigence," he said.
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