A month of bear traps

Last March, Eric Ueland, deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, noted that the Senate floor would be "full of bear traps" to put liberals on the record on a series of wedge issues. Today marks the end of the six-week congressional recess, and the beginning of a month's worth of posturing and positioning by Tom Daschle to avoid the bear traps. The Wall Street Journal has an article (subscription only) today headlined "Lawmakers Face Big Backlog; Both Parties Might Pay at the Polls For Unfinished Bills in Congress." Excerpt:

As lawmakers return today from their national conventions, the pile of unfinished bills -- and warnings from frustrated voters -- is mounting. No budget has been approved for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, and only one of 13 annual appropriations bills has been enacted. Amid high oil prices, energy legislation is stalled, and an entire construction season has passed without action on highway funding.

The punishing duties being paid by exporters such as Mr. Stollenwerk will only get higher until the tax changes are resolved -- probably not until a post-election lame-duck session. Hope is fading for immigration, welfare and tort-overhaul legislation.

Republican leaders are planning a pre-election push to extend middle-class tax breaks first enacted in 2001. But as new issues such as post-Sept. 11 intelligence overhauls demand attention, the sheer volume of unfinished business risks a backlash at the polls.

The Los Angeles Times also has a piece on this flurry of activity today headlined "Congress Gearing Up for a Legislative Sprint." Excerpt:

Some analysts say the session may end up being mostly politically charged window dressing, despite the importance of some of the pending bills.

The pace of legislative action is likely to quicken in the next several weeks, said Patrick Basham, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, but "most of it will be carefully packaged, focus-group-tested, window-dressing stuff designed to appeal to swing voters in closely contested congressional races, such as they exist."

He predicted that the Republican leadership would bring bills to the floor "for the sole purpose of embarrassing or flushing out the Democrats on emotive or wedge issues. Between now and election day, the action on Capitol Hill will be more symbolic than substantive."

Already, House Republicans are planning to bring up the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, according to Stuart Roy, spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). And one House Republican aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the leadership planned to schedule a bill to keep the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.