Remember how the GOP defended President Bush using "recess" appointments to get judges like William Pryor on the bench when the full Senate wouldn't confirm him - even though the Senate was only "recessed" for the weekend?

Now Bush has used the same "weekend recess" power to appoint people that Trent Lott is fighting tooth and nail.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, brushing aside a stall tactic by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., appointed the nine-member commission that will determine military bases closings without waiting for Senate confirmation.

Bush made the appointments while the Senate was in recess, the White House announced Friday night. The recess appointments prevent delays as the commission prepares to make the first round of base closings in a decade.

Before it left for its spring recess the full Senate had been expected to vote on the nomination of Anthony J. Principi, former secretary of veterans affairs, as chairman of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. The other commissioners, nominated by Bush on March 15, also required Senate confirmation.

However, Lott - who opposes base closures and has pledged to protect military facilities in his home state - placed a "hold" on Principi's nomination, according to aides and lobbyists speaking on condition of anonymity. The hold delayed voting on the nomination.

Lott was expected to place holds on the other nominations as well, the aides and lobbyists told The Associated Press earlier this week. The Senate Armed Services Committee had approved Principi's nomination and planned to review the other nominations in the next few weeks.

The White House said Bush felt the recess appointments were appropriate since the full committee had already acted on Principi. Plus, the president wants no delay in the "important work for the nation" that the base closure panel will have before it, spokesman Ken Lisaius said Saturday.

"The president believes there is important work for the (commission) to start on," he said.

Lott has said the United States should not be closing bases while troops are at war. "I will try to stop it at any point and in any way I possibly can," he said in February.

Recess appointments expire when the Senate's current session ends, in this case in 2006. However, the commission probably will have concluded its work by the end of this year.

Lott's chief of staff, William Gottshall, and Lott spokesman Lee Youngblood did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

I can imagine they didn't. That's the problem with absolute power - you can't trust it in anyone but yourself, even in your allies. Maybe this will wake up the Senate.

Wait, the Senate GOP leadership is still Frist and Santorum, right?

Nah, they won't figure it out.