In response to Atrios and my many irate commenters, the point of the post below isn't to try and let the press off the hook, it's to try and make sure that we in the blogosphere don't become so obsessed with the media's failings that we wind up letting the Republicans off the hook. It isn't written into the fabric of the universe that congressional Republicans need to operate as White House stooges and block all oversight of the executive branch. There's such a thing as doing the right thing, and the fact that zero members of the GOP on the Hill are doing it is worthy of notice.
In the Senate, especially, it would only take a handfull of the people who pride themselves on their reputation for high-minded statesmanship and independence to actually demonstrate high-minded statesmanship and independence to make a world of difference.
The tiny club of moderate Republicans has for too long gotten away with basking in their moderate reputations while doing absolutely nothing of impact to deserve that status. It's time for that to change.