THE HORNET'S NEST stirred up by the NYTimes' disclosure of antiterrorism programs shows no sign of subsiding.

Just a few weeks ago, the buzz was that the Democrats would be retaking at least one house of Congress, based on the "culture of corruption" meme. How quickly they have turned prospective victory into another humiliation! And the party's elected officials, already at a loss for a coherent agenda, are now put in a position of defending outrageous behavior by the press, for fear of losing financial support from the groups who now seem to control all the soft money for the left. The Republicans have been given issues to run on.

Congress may have been unable to deal with the illegal immigration crisis, but it's pretty clear that the problem is not that conservative officials have failed so much as that there aren't enough of them to kick in the door and get things done.