Some of you may be wondering how the judges got bottlenecked in the first place if they were uncontroversial. It’s a long story. But, basically, the Republicans, irritated about totally unrelated matters, vented their frustration by putting their feet on the necks of helpless judicial nominees, people without an enemy in the world, who just wanted to go in and help clear up the critical case backload in the nation’s federal courts.

“It’s easy to make Republicans look bad,” complained Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, accurately.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York dared to hope that “an idea of a moment of greater comity that we’ve seen this week is not just momentary, but will last on into the future.” It was possibly not the most stirring prose ever, but it was hard to talk coherently with all the emotion in the air.

One of the great challenges for citizens in an era of partisan rancor is figuring out whether to applaud whenever our elected representatives manage to accomplish anything whatsoever. The bar is getting pretty low. Are we supposed to be thrilled that Congress managed to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration? Doesn’t really seem much to ask. On the other hand, if you have seen this crowd in action, you know it’s a wonder that they’ve managed to keep paying the air traffic controllers’ salaries.

Image Gail Collins Credit... Earl Wilson/The New York Times

The transportation bill could actually have some trouble in the House, since the Republicans there were talking about slashing away at the spending and tying the whole thing to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It used to be that, if nothing else, you could count on our men and women in Washington to work together when it came to passing lots and lots of highway projects. But no more, apparently. I think I speak for many Americans when I say that I miss the Bridge to Nowhere.