Promising Student, Needs Confidence

It's coming up on a year since we elected a new Congress. How are they doing? Time magazine gives them a report card (click the image below for a text-based version)-


I mostly agree with the grades here, except for judicial confirmations to a small extent (are Democrats supposed to confirm all of the crazy bible-thumpers Bush nominates out of some notion of partisan 'civility'?), and "playing nice with others" to a greater extent.

Regarding the latter, the only problem may be that Democrats have played too nice, rarely willing to hold Republicans' feet to the fire on issues that matter. Republicans, meanwhile, have made it a mission to create gridlock and a partisan atmosphere, with Sen. Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) laughingly bragging about holding up popular legislation. Democrats have refused to make an issue out of this, for fear of being lambasted by people like, well, Time magazine.

If this Congress is flawed, it's the timidity of its leaders that's at fault.