The Democrats are fair game for their Iraq positions and Katrina grandstanding, but I don't see blaming the Democrats' position on these issues for the failure of identity theft protection. The Republicans control Congress; they get to set the agenda and priorities. In the absence of specific Democratic obstruction on this issue of identity theft -- of which I'm not aware -- the Republicans as the majority have to take primary responsibility for the failure to advance reform on identity theft. Industry lobbying money has for too long controlled this issue; this tars both parties, but still the majority party has to take the majority of blame - this just comes with the territory.

C.T. --

I lay blame for a lot of things that don't get done inside the Beltway these days, in fact for the last five years, on the Democrats.

Since the day Dubya was sworn in as President, they've done nothing but attack him, his administration and every conservative agenda, good, bad, vital or bagatelle, regaled the voting public with omission, spin and pure negativity re conservatism. They've generated more frivolous congressional activity than we've seen in my lifetime.

Granted, as I posted the other day{the post titled Better Late Than Never}, there is an ongoing bipartisan bill that has been put forward to combat identity theft, but it is an issue that should have been addressed a few years ago.

But who has time for that sort of thing when the people most interested in doing what they were elected to do are forced to spend the bulk of their time as the unwitting targets in an aggressive, non-stop dodgeball game?

To digress about a decade, you may remember when there was a "battle of the budget" when the 1st finished product from the new GOP dominated Congress was vetoed, accompanied by a snotty grin, by the man who would one day be Monica's lollipop. The Republicans asked him what he wanted in the budget, and he told them. They presented a new budget with everything he wanted included. Smirking, he vetoed this one, too. Thanksgiving arrived and all the Democrats went home to party and be with their families. The more dedicated Republicans stayed in Washington and continued to work on the budget, trying to produce something that would appeal to all sides.

B.J. Clinton sat leering, waiting to veto whatever effort the Republicans ventured -- then Alan Greenspan announced that if he didn't have a budget on his desk this time around, he would raise interest rates.

Bubba was into his reelection campaign -- since this was his watch, higher interest rates were hardly in his best interests, so he approved the budget.

Back from digressing: When a party spends most of its time playing dirty politics(given the fact that politics is already a dirty business, imagine what must be inferred by the word "dirty" added on) and "making scenes" to distract the public from the truth, distracting the country from what should be its true concerns, it is ultimately responsible for any negative side effects.

Suddenly, the GOP's next budget was just the ticket, no veto.