The can't-do Congress.(Editorial)

Lost in the scandal and chaos of this painful political year, buried under all the coverage of the Starr investigation and the impeachment inquiry, was the real business of the nation. It barely showed up on the five o'clock news. You could hardly find a half-column about it on page nineteen of the newspaper. All the news about the ordinary critical issues of Americans' lives - health care, environment, foreign policy - was cut down, shoved back, or omitted entirely. And whether you blame the president or Congress, the politicians or the media, if you are an environmentalist you lost out.

The 105th Congress of 1997-1998, shielded as it was from the glare of publicity, was one of the worst on record for the environment. Anti-environmentalists in this …