Les Mots Justes about Enough concerning an almost dysfunctional institution are offered by today's New York Times: Here... there is trash-talking, whining and finger-pointing, bickering and, occasionally, brief flashes of serious disagreement on policy. But with the clock ticking swiftly toward the end of the year and a stack of stalled legislation piling up, little is getting done in the Senate these days. ... There is no deal on the federal budget, which is needed to prevent a shutdown of the government. The House and Senate remain divided over how to fix the alternative minimum tax, which will drill a hole in the wallets of 23 million Americans next year... A much-heralded energy bill, which the House approved on Thursday, was expected to fail in the Senate on Friday. Democrats blame Republican obstruction. "They are filibustering as if they are on steroids," [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid said. The repeated experience of seeing legislation passed by the House during the 110th Congress go directly into the Senate Cemetary prompted this scholarly opinion: "As an amateur student of constitutional history and as a member of Congress, I have come to the conclusion that the Senate was a historic mistake," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the No. 4 Democrat.