EDITORIAL: Super committee?

We can't say we're surprised by the failure of Congress' so-called super committee to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions. But we are disappointed. There is no joy in having Congress live down to our expectations yet again.

Heartbreaking as that lack of confidence in our own government may be, is it any wonder? For the past year, Washington has been all but paralyzed by an unyielding aversion among Republicans to tax increases, even on the wealthiest Americans, and by their unrelenting determination to oppose President Barack Obama at every turn in order to win back the White House, if not all of Congress, in 2012. We don't say that to be partisan. We say it because those are the facts and the Republicans' stated positions.

Coupled with Democrats' failure to negotiate through this intransigence - if, indeed, that were even possible - the result has been an unending political campaign. And when the campaign never ends, governing has little hope of getting done.

The failure of the super committee should leave us more than disappointed. It should leave us worried, gravely worried, that our political system has done little more than mark time, unable to handle the serious issues facing our nation today.