And irony of ironies, at another hearing, a witness had just gotten to the part of her statement about “improving access to government information” when the chairman told her that the 2 o’clock buzzer had gone off and they were compelled to close up shop and go home.

Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, was enraged because his hearing on judicial nominations couldn’t go forward. Although really, Leahy should count his blessings. At least Jim Bunning didn’t put a hold on the nominations because of some antismoking initiative in Finland.

Carl Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, begged the Senate to allow him to go ahead and hear testimony from military commanders who had come from as far as South Korea to talk about the defense budget. Even the new, unimproved version of John McCain  the one who vowed there would be “no cooperation for the rest of the year”  was willing to allow an exemption for that one. But another Republican gave a thumbs down, and the officers were dismissed for the day.

“Disappointed,” tweeted Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who had to cancel a hearing on police training contracts in Afghanistan. Bad as we think the Republicans’ behavior has been, it should not be taken as an excuse for senators to take out their frustrations on Twitter. No good can come of political tweets.

Over on the Senate floor, everyone was debating the caboose to the health care train, a bill full of fixes that unfortunately was not entitled “Act to Eliminate Embarrassing Things Feckless Senators Stuck in the Health Care Reform Act.”

The Senate Democrats wanted to approve the exact same version that the House has passed so this debate will be over and everyone can move on to congratulating victorious college basketball teams and discussing why Republicans are opposed to a consumer protection agency for financial products.

But the Republicans drew up a slew of amendments, many of which made no sense but offered opportunities for spectacular election-year attack ads. The most instantly famous, from Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, was the classic “No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs to Sex Offenders.”

This could go on for some time. Meanwhile, feel free to remind Rush Limbaugh that he promised to move to Costa Rica if health care reform gets implemented. Once you’re done, you can go back and remind him that Costa Rica has national health care.