How the Hill Got Its Mojo Back

When the electorate starts worrying, the most dangerous thing an incumbent can do is nothing. "Americans want solutions, not rhetoric," House G.O.P. conference chairman J.C. Watts warned Republicans in a July 24 memo. This explains why much of the election-year posturing that gridlocked Congress has evaporated as the national mood has headed south along with the stock market.

A bill to reform accounting and corporate practices a political no-brainer in the scandal-a-day summer of 2002--finally made it to Bush's desk on nearly unanimous votes. The Senate confirmed overdue nominations to more than a dozen key posts across regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the House worked into the early hours to pass the stalled trade bill before the August recess.

The best sign that Congress got its mojo working was movement on the politically explosive question of whether and how to provide prescription-drug benefits to the elderly. Few expected anything more than theater in the Senate. But quickly enough, Florida Democrat Bob Graham and Oregon Republican Gordon Smith proposed the outlines of a viable bipartisan compromise one that offers full coverage to people with incomes under 150% of the poverty level and modest discounts to those earning more. Some Democratic strategists were worried that the party could be ceding one of its best issues this fall; one groused that the appetite for action was "a fever that has gripped some of our members."

Still hung up by bickering is a bill that initially had significant bipartisan agreement: the creation of a Homeland Security Department. No one is against it. It's just that the Democratic Senate's version offers civil-service protection to the department's 170,000 employees. But Bush, who wants flexibility to hire and fire, says that could trigger his first veto. These differences may evaporate quickly under Washington's fever to show it can get things done.