I might have bought a little too much in a few particular corners’ spins on the happening in Congress on all this re: Sensenbrenner. It might have been unfair. Jack Fowler e-mails me part of an e-mail from a House friend on my Sensenbrenner carping, specifically: “is b******t from the Senate. The Senate bill — passed after the House left — does not require a federal court to hear Schiavo’s appeal. The Senate bill explicitly allows a federal court to decide not to hear Schiavo’s appeal, and instead to defer to the State court. [Sen. Ron] Wyden says the bill would affect Oregon’s assisted suicide law when it wouldn’t. … stop schlepping for Wyden/Boxer/etc. and help provide some cajones for the Senate leadership to pass the House bill.”

I don’t think I was schlepping for Wyden and Boxer (!), but I don’t know that it is fair to blame Sensenbrenner either.

Basically, there are cases made by smart people that different individuals are to blame, one or more of the takes could be true. What it comes down to, though, is some kind of fundamental leadership flaw somewhere there. They couldn’t get their act together, together. During the last 24 hours the overwhelming impression I’ve gotten from staffers is chaos. There were some good people doing yeomen’s work at all hours, and some particular members getting out in front, but that they didn’t manage to pass a uniform bill by today points to…a lack of leadership, something they had better get before they face the big court battles to come. I don’t even want to think like this, but that needs to be one of many lessons from this terrible story.