You can always count on Democrats to blow it when they own DC. Jonathan Chait shows how a Democratically controlled Congress devolves to its days as a fragmented, barely assembled coalition held by local paladins.

I'm not so sure, by the way, that it's a bad thing that the Congress is asserting itself as a co-equal branch of government -- an insight the GOP lost when George W. Bush was landing on aircraft carriers in G.I. Joe fatigues. But a Democratic Congress broke Jimmy Carter over its knee in the late seventies (Walter Karp's Liberty Under Siege is the only book chronicling the sordid affair), and it's got its own problems with, shall we say, undue influence by lobbyists (a Jack Murtha biopic would be so much fun). Times are different: Barack Obama is more popular and focused than Carter, and he's in a much bigger hole. We have a unique president facing an all-too-familiar legislative scenario. Let the good times role.