This looks more and more like a do nothing congress

There they go again - out the door. According to The Associated Press, "Lawmakers sped for the exits Friday as Congress was to begin a five-week recess after a summer session noteworthy for bitter partisanship and paralysis on the issue topmost in the minds of many voters: the cost of gasoline."

The AP captured the situation perfectly. And the situation is deplorable. Never in the history of the United States have our elected representatives more consistently chosen politics over the public good.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in particular, seem to revel in leading this do-nothing Democratic Congress. They've done nothing important. They waited until Friday to pass their first spending bill of the session - a slam-dunk $72.7 billion measure awarding generous increases to veterans programs and military base construction.

They utterly failed on the broader budget and energy fronts.

For every Republican attempt to increase drilling for more oil and gas, the Democrats counter with tortured reasons against it. Personally, I agree with the Republicans on increasing supply through expanded offshore drilling, nuclear power generation and other aggressive measures. We need it all, a comprehensive plan that includes conservation and renewable energy in the mix.

I also see merit in Democratic proposals to tighten regulation of oil and energy securities. Market manipulation allows speculators to build up the price, thus taking the risk out of investing in oil futures.

If the weakly regulated oil futures market isn't a national disgrace yet, it may in the near future.

The American people want the two sides to serve the country, not narrow interests. We ought to repudiate Democrats voting blindly with anti-development environmentalist interests and Republicans with anti-consumer business forces.

The gridlock is worse than ever in Washington.

If neither side is willing to budge, I say throw all the rascals out.

That brings up another outrage. When did the 60-vote rule on closing U.S. Senate debate become an automatic filibuster? These days, any 41 senators can bring everything to a halt even if there are 51 to 59 votes in the 100-member Senate for something.

Go back to the days of the real filibuster - brought to life in the 1939 film, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." I remember James Stewart's great performance as Sen. Jefferson Smith holding out for truth and justice on the Senate floor until he almost croaked.

Fiction? Yes, but no more fictitious than honoring the 60-vote rule without even the threat of a real filibuster.

One thing is certain. Members of Congress wouldn't run to the exits to go on five-week recesses if even a small number of them held out on principle. Today, there's no place in party partisanship for personal principle.

President Harry Truman ran against a do-nothing Congress in 1948 and won. The theme seems as appropriate now, 60 years later, as it was then.