The anthrax investigation is moving slowly in large part because authorities are chasing multiple moving targets. The contaminated letters that we know of — sent to Tom Daschle, Tom Brokaw, American Media, etc. — each passed through a multitude of mail processing centers and post offices before landing in their target offices. The key now is tracing each letter's travels as precisely as possible — and identifying exactly who might have touched each letter, and even what other letters might have touched the contaminated mail.
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Are all these cases of anthrax the same case or is new mail coming into the system?
Nobody really knows. There's one school of thought that places the Tom Daschle letter (which reportedly contained extremely high-grade anthrax) at the center of a widening web of diagnoses. That would mean most of the inhalation cases are directly traceable to that one letter and its miles-long trail of virulent bacteria.
Another theory holds that new anthrax-laced letters may be circulating through the mail system, contaminating postal equipment and other letters — and infecting more and more people.
Is other work getting done in Washington not related to terrorism?
Even in this post-attack world, Congress has time to attend to other business. It helps if you can make the case that your bill is related, however tangentially, to anti-terror measures; for instance, proponents of drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been trying to get their measure through by arguing that increasing the oil supply is a national security issue.
Still, a lot remains undone. One big thing is that next year's federal budget is still not finished. President Bush's education bill remains stalled, and his proposals for Medicare prescription-drug benefits and federal funding for religious charities are basically dead. But legislators in the House and Senate are slowly returning to their normal duties.