Meeting with the press yesterday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid laid out a heavy workload for the upper chamber in the final two weeks before members take August off. Reid will try and win passage for four major bills before the summer recess, including reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the September 11th Commission recommendations, the Homeland Security appropriations bill and an ethics and lobbying reform package.

Signaling a willingness to play legislative chicken with the Senate Republican caucus, Reid forecast a long, cold winter. "We're certainly going to be in here until at least Thanksgiving," he said.

At a separate meeting with reporters, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats would miss their goal of ensuring spending bills would be finished by October 1st. Republican leaders of the House and Senate said Democrats in charge of Congress have failed to act on major legislation while inserting tax increases into other bills. "The Democrats are running the Congress exactly the way we thought they would," said House Republican leader John Boehner.

Issuing a "turbulent tax weather alert," Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott predicted appropriations bills would fail to gain enough support and Democrats would be forced to push through an omnibus spending bill in the new year. House GOP Conference chair Adam Putnam, a Florida Republican, blamed the failure to pass spending measures on budget bills that came in over President Bush's requests. Putnam called the legislation "veto bait."

But Democrats counter-charged that Republicans were to blame for obstructing the progress of several bills. "Senate Republicans have filibustered everything but the daily prayer, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did that next week," said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin.

Durbin pointed to an analysis by the McClatchy news agency that showed Senate Republicans on pace to break the record for most filibusters in a two-year period. McConnell, asked about the tactic, fired back. "Another way of looking at it is there have been an excessive number of cloture petitions filed," he said, accusing Reid of rushing too fast on key legislation.

McConnell signaled that both the 9/11 Commission bill and the ethics and lobbying reform package would not face significant GOP opposition, though the Homeland Security and SCHIP bills will likely be far more contentious.

Reid also said he is in favor of appointing a special prosecutor to look into charges that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had misled the Senate Judiciary Committee in testimony regarding the firing of several U.S. Attorneys, warrantless wiretapping and other topics. "I'm convinced [Gonzales] is not telling the truth," Reid said, basing his statement on conversations with members of the Judiciary Committee.