Congress' last stand: A delay

WASHINGTON - A deeply unpopular Congress is bolting for the campaign trail without finishing its most basic job - approving a budget for the government year that begins Friday. Lawmakers also are postponing a major fight over taxes, two embarrassing ethics cases, and other political hot potatoes until angry and frustrated voters render their verdict in the Nov. 2 elections.

As Congress moved toward a messy end to a session fraught with partisan fire, President Obama campaigned for Democrats in Iowa and Virginia, accusing Republicans of being dishonest about what needs to be done to revive the economy and restore middle-class dreams.

With their House and Senate majorities on the line, Democratic leaders called off votes and even debates on all controversial matters.

"It would be one thing if you have a chance to pass something, then by all means have a vote," Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Wednesday. "But it was pretty clear that it was going to be mutually assured destruction."

One foot out the door, the House and Senate convened just long enough to vote on a "continuing resolution" - a stopgap measure to keep the government operating for two more months and avoid a preelection shutdown.

"We may not agree on much, but I think, with rare exception, all 100 senators want to get out of here and get back to their states," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is locked in a tough reelection fight against Republican Sharron Angle in Nevada.

Staying or going might seem an equally unpleasant prospect for some embattled Democrats, who are facing more than four weeks of defending unpopular votes in favor of Obama's economic stimulus measure, health-care law, and uncompleted legislation on global warming.

They also head home without what was supposed to be their closing argument of the campaign, an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000.

Republicans and a few Democrats urged Congress to preserve the tax cuts for all Americans, even the wealthiest. Democratic leaders opted to avoid the risk of being branded tax hikers and punted until after the elections.

Republicans applied the label anyway, scolding Democrats for folding the tent without voting on extending former President George W. Bush's tax cuts beyond their Dec. 31 expiration. A motion to adjourn upon finishing routine business passed by one vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's, after 39 Democrats joined Republicans in protest.

"If Democratic leaders leave town without stopping all of the tax hikes, they are turning their backs on the American people," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner.

Pelosi has vowed that the middle-class tax cuts will be passed this year.

Republicans also denounced Democrats for delaying the ethics trials of Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D., N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D., Calif.). Both had said they wanted trials as soon as possible.

House leaders also appeared unlikely to call a vote on a Senate-passed school nutrition bill favored by first lady Michelle Obama. The bill is opposed by liberals because it would cut food-stamp benefits to find the money to pay for better school lunches.

The Senate passed the $4.5 billion legislation in August, and many of the child nutrition programs it includes expire Thursday. They will be extended under the stopgap.

The stopgap bill is a reminder of the dismal performance by Congress in doing its most basic job - passing an annual budget and the spending bills for agency operations.

Only two of a dozen annual appropriations bills have passed the House and none has passed the Senate as top Democrats opted against lengthy floor debates and difficult votes on spending.