snip....
Think of them as kids squabbling in the backseat on a long car ride. In the case of Congress, there doesn't seem to be much hope that they'll quiet down and cooperate.
Republicans and Democrats can always be expected to bicker, but lately the partisanship on Capitol Hill has become unusually intense. In fact, students of the institution say Congress hasn't been this politically polarized in almost a century.
That doesn't bode well for George W. Bush's ambitious second-term agenda, which includes reforming the federal tax code, partially privatizing Social Security and probably naming at least one Supreme Court Justice.
snip...
Senate minority leader Harry Reid is acting as if the election season never ended, setting up a war room of press aides whose job will be to respond rapidly to Republicans.
Reid angered Republicans by announcing that the Democratic policy committee, an arm of the Senate Democrats, would usurp G.O.P.-led Senate committees by convening oversight hearings on issues--such as flawed prewar intelligence on Iraq--that Democrats feel have not been sufficiently probed.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/03/bickering.heights.tm/