No Holds Barred

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Washington was immobilized by snow on Friday. This is highly unusual. Normally, Washington is immobilized by senators.

This time storm warnings came just as the Senate had hit a point of uncommon productivity. In a single week, it managed to not only confirm two U.S. marshals, but also to approve a couple of nominations to the Obama administration. Finally, we can sleep easy in the knowledge that the Labor Department has a No. 3 person.

Then Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama put a hold on the 70-odd other administration nominations that are still pending. Everything came to whatever you call a screeching halt when the vehicle in question was moving at the speed of the Senate.

This was a dramatic gesture, one Shelby must have felt was so important that he took time out from his normal duties blocking all progress on creating a consumer protection agency for financial products.

(More here.)