Observing the 107th Congress could sometimes be likened to watching a three-ring circus. There was the House of Representatives in one outside ring and the Senate on the other side, with the Administration or the White House in the center ring.
There were minor circus differences, to be sure. For instance, instead of one ringmaster to keep the show moving in all three rings, each ring beckoned to the call of its own master. The House and Senate majority leaders dictated what legislative acts would perform in their rings while the Administration, unable to enact any acts of legislation on its own, sought to influence what took place in the other rings. In the absence of complete harmony (as there was after Sept. 11, 2001), performers, animals and clowns could not join hands in a grand march around the arena to share the applause for a show well enacted. The Democrat majority in the Senate and the Republican majority in the House made it difficult for the Administration to get all the acts together, even with the threat to veto those that did not entertain the President.
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