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So reporters and pols alike are dismayed at having at work a five-day week in the new Congress. (That is, five days beginning Monday night and ending early Friday afternoon.)

My thoughts are mixed. Typically, Congress leaving town is something to celebrate: they nearly always manage to disappoint while in session. Still, as the article points out, our elected representatives still haven't finished passing spending bills for the fiscal year that began over two months ago. And who likes them working 103 days in a year, much less during a two-year Congress?

But something tells me the problem isn't a lack of time. After all, Sens. Rockefeller and Snowe have time to step far beyond their constitutional responsibilities (and power?) to write a bullying letter to ExxonMobil, threatening them for funding balanced global warming research.

Libs aren't the only ones wasting time and money on the Hill. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) plans to show today that two can play the bully pulpit. He is holding a hearing on how the media distorts global warming science. Well, bully for him, but isn't that something he should do on his own time? At the conclusion of the hearing, in which he will surely find that which he set out to find, will he introduce a bill mandating better coverage? Small government seems to be a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do act among Congressional Republicans.

The lesson: less show hearings, more legislating.

topics:
Global Warming, Constitution