Nobody except students of politics worry much about process -- everyone else knows it's like sausage-making and wisely averts his eyes. But you might want to keep an eye on some chilling procedural signs. Democrats are now being shut out of some conference committees entirely. That's new. What we're seeing more and more is less a pragmatic approach to problem-solving, which used to be the way things got done in politics, and more and more straight party-ideology voting.

Compromise is becoming unfashionable. As Texas Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos said of his Republican colleagues: "They don't want to govern. They want to rule."