Think of them as kids squabbling in the backseat on a long car ride. In the case of Congress, there doesn't seem to be much hope that they'll quiet down and cooperate. Republicans and Democrats can always be expected to bicker, but lately the partisanship on Capitol Hill has become unusually intense. In fact, students of the institution say Congress hasn't been this politically polarized in almost a century.
That doesn't bode well for George W. Bush's ambitious second-term agenda, which includes reforming the federal tax code, partially privatizing Social Security and probably naming at least one Supreme Court Justice. To...