108th Congress was marked by partisan bickering

Both sides said partisanship impeded compromise.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The 108th Congress soon will be history, a tumultuous two years that, depending on party affiliation, was the best of times or the worst of times.
Of course, Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate, expressed pride in a Congress that passed a major Medicare prescription drug bill, gave President Bush the money he needed for Iraq and substantially increased spending for defense and homeland security.
"It's been a Congress of big ideas, and it's been a Congress of big reform," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Democrats saw the session in a different light, blaming Republicans for failing to pass important highway spending and welfare overhaul bills; dealing inadequately with the nation's health insurance problems and security needs; and passing tax cuts that contributed to record-high budget deficits.
Both sides deplored the partisanship that has impeded compromise and grown progressively spiteful this year in the run-up to the Nov. 2 elections.
"From day one, Republicans have wasted and squandered the 108th Congress," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. She accused the GOP of being "fiscally irresponsible and ethically unfit." The latter phrase was aimed at Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the fiercely partisan House majority leader who has been admonished twice in recent weeks by the House ethics committee for his political activities.
Rancor in Senate
Across the Capitol, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., criticized Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a favorite GOP target. Opposition by Democratic senators that blocked several of the Bush administration's judicial nominations has particularly rankled Republicans.
"Tom Daschle used procedural measures that had never been used in the history of the Senate to stop bipartisan reforms from happening," Santorum said.
Daschle said it's "ludicrous that the Republican majority is blaming others for their failure. They control the White House, the Senate and the House."
Some of the biggest accomplishments occurred in 2003, when Congress passed the Medicare bill and a $15 billion bill for global AIDS relief, funded war and reconstruction in Iraq and approved a ban, now held up in the courts, on an abortion procedure that critics call partial-birth abortion.
This year, with the elections overshadowing the lawmaking process, both the expectations and the results were more modest.
Democrats said that even while in session, Congress has spent its time on such tasks as naming 92 post offices and passing 34 resolutions honoring athletic teams.
Accomplishments
Still, some solid achievements have emerged this year:
UCongress passed legislation, sought by social conservatives, making it a double crime to injure a pregnant woman and her fetus;
UIt sent to the president a $5.6 billion bill for developing and stockpiling antidotes for chemical and germ attacks.
UIt approved a pensions relief package that could save employers some $80 billion, and it passed a $146 billion package to extend three popular middle-class tax breaks.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.