• By   • Gerald F. Seib U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell   The long-term effect of Tuesday’s Senate deal
uncorking the confirmation of a series of presidential
appointments without a divisive change of the chamber’s rules
rests on an intangible factor: how long the Senate’s new spirit
of comity lasts.  There was nothing in the deal to prevent a
later slide back into the warfare-by-filibuster that led the
Senate to the brink of a partisan meltdown. Indeed, Republican
leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) explicitly said that
Republicans retained the right to use the filibuster to stop
presidential appointments in the future, and Democratic leader
Harry Reid (D., Nev.) explicitly said he retained the right to
try to change the Senate’s rules in the future to stop them.
Besides, deals and understandings to prevent such things are
hardly airtight. Senators on both sides thought earlier this
year they had an agreement to handle confirmation battles in a
civil manner, without changing the rules to water down