'World News' Political Insights: Democrats Find Agenda Stuck in Swamp

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2010— -- This must be what the swamp feels like.

Democrats had hoped to use the final sprint to this fall's congressional elections to highlight the choices they want to place before voters. The plan was to use the remaining time before November to force Republicans into politically perilous votes on energy policy, education and other domestic policies, and taxes and spending.

But they now stand ready to lose another week of messaging -- and events are coming together that could blot out much of the remaining legislative schedule.

Barring a last-minute deal, the House Ethics Committee on Thursday will outline charges being brought against Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who was one of the most powerful members of Congress before being forced to step down from his perch atop the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this year.

That's likely to make this a third straight week where Democrats fail to control their own message. Last week's controversy over the ouster of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod followed close on the heels of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' remark about the possibility of Democrats losing control of the House.

Democratic leaders are pressing to reach a deal with the defiant Rangel, to avoid the spectacle of a public trial this fall. The allegations are particularly troublesome to Democrats because of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's celebrated pledge to lead the "most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history."

But even aside from the Rangel matter, Democrats are struggling to maintain a coherent message going into the fall.

This week will bring House debate over funding for the war in Afghanistan. Now stripped of domestic initiatives, the measure will highlight deep divisions inside the House Democratic caucus over the course of the war -- and figures to draw a significant number of Democratic votes in favor of cutting off funding altogether.

On Thursday -- the same day Rangel's ethics charges are set to be made public -- Arizona's controversial new immigration law is set to go into effect. That's another area where Democrats are seriously divided, with embattled lawmakers in the South and West particularly uncomfortable with the current party line.