A short time in politics

It is said that a week is a long time in politics. It can also be a very short time; just ask those lawmakers and leaders trying to get things done by Friday.

It is far from clear how much Congress will achieve this week — the last work period before the August recess, the nominating conventions in Denver and the Twin Cities, and the final sprint down the straight to the elections.

But even if we don’t know what will get done, we do know that Congress will be busy doing it. That is to say, lawmakers are likely to be on Capitol Hill again at least through Friday — they worked the weekend just gone — but whether they limp or charge into recess remains to be seen.

The House is consumed (if that is the right word) with cigarettes — or, rather, with the regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration. It is an idea with a long pedigree but also with a troubled past.

When the GOP was in control on Capitol Hill, legislation to regulate tobacco as a drug — opposed by many cigarette companies but supported by the biggest — repeatedly stumbled. This time around, however, it has the support and sustained interest of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who appears determined to get it to the floor for a vote.

On the other side of the Capitol, senators are taken up with the issue of tax extenders. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has been stuck just short of the magic number of 60 votes to get legislation through. Democrats want to offset the revenue cuts implied by the extenders, but Republicans do not. A deal is not impossible.

And then we are into the dog-eat-dog days of August, when the interests of government will be chewed up by those with the scent of the elections in their nostrils and determined to get on the trail that leads toward victory.

This is not the final week of congressional work. Lawmakers will be back in September for three or four weeks and will get one or two things done before they go away again to fight for votes and let the public tell them the arrangements — that is, the distribution of seats — that will be made for governing in the 111th Congress.