Just wait until your president gets home

President Bush decided to use some of that "political capital" he earned by his man date in the November election to get an intelligence reform bill passed.

Sure he did.

Unlike Elisabeth Bumiller, Sheryl Gay Stolberg actually does some reporting -- even naming names -- to get to the story behind the spin.

In other words, in a party and a White House that demands total fealty, one of the few Cabinet officers not to be fired...er...resign and a couple of Republican committee chairmen brought Dennis Hastert and the White House to their knees, who then failed to find the votes necessary to get the bill passed.

Sure. Ask Arlen Specter about what happens when a committe chairman dares to show some independent thinking (unlike Sensenbrenner and Hunter, Specter isn't a sitting chairman, but you get the point).

Bush doesn't want this bill passed. Cheney doesn't either. They want to be seen supporting it, while having Rumsfeld do the dirty work for which he is both extremely qualified and ideologically enthusiastic. And Hastert sure doesn't want a bill coming to the floor for which there is more Democratic support than Republican.

Republicans control all three branches of government, and although they can get the money to buy Bush a yacht, they can't summon the votes to make much-needed reform to the intelligence infrastructure. Despite months of investigation and riveting testimony before the 9-11 commission. Despite the pleas of the 9-11 widows.

"I am convinced that had the speaker brought the bill to the floor, it would have passed," Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and chief author of the measure, said in an interview on Sunday. "That's what's so frustrating. Here we have a bill that's been endorsed by the White House, by the 9/11 commission, by the 9/11 family groups, by the speaker of the House, and we can't get a vote."

But Mr. Hastert did not want to split his caucus and did not want the bill to pass with less than ''a majority of the majority," said his spokesman, John Feehery. "What good is it to pass something," Mr. Feehery said, "where most of our members don't like it?"

What good is it, eh? I hope the House Democrats have those words recorded for when they're attacked for being weak on national security in the 2006 races.

As they say at sporting events, Democrats, let's make some noise in here (Cue the Queen)!