Inside the Beltway. . . and Out

Senate Democrats successfully used a parliamentary tool to force Republicans to continue to investigate the Bush Administration's manufacturing and manipulation of intelligence and information to justify their invasion of Iraq. Republicans threw fits -- you should have seen Frist frothing at the mouth -- but they agreed to continue the investigation they had stalled.

And on the House side, indicted Republican Tom DeLay stepped down as Majority Leader, as required by House rules, but he won't leave his leadership office, and he is still acting as if he is Majority Leader. As a result, Republicans are bickering among themselves. No one wants to challenge DeLay just yet out of fear he may actually return formally to the leadership job and retaliate.

The indictment of Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby has the Bushies floundering, trying something new every day to regain control, like the "major speech" to unveil the "major strategy" for dealing with bird flu. I laughed out loud at the image of dimwitted Bush smirking at the audience full of MDs and PhDs at the National Institutes of Health.

So even though the Republicans control all branches of government, nothing is getting done. That's not necessarily a bad thing, given what they want to do to our country, but what does it tell you about their capacity to govern?