Oh, this should be a good week in the Congress.  Not necessarily a good week to cover this place, but a good week to sit back and listen to grandstanding from both sides on the high cost of oil and gasoline.

After this week, Congress takes a week off for a July 4th break, which means that lawmakers will have to go back and rub shoulders with the voters (unless they are going on a junket to the Galapagos Islands, or something like that.)

That means both parties want to get out the message this week and next that they are doing what the people want on the high cost of oil and gas.

Of course, the two parties don't see eye to eye and both want to prove that in coming days.

Democrats will trot out as many as four energy bills in the House, dealing with public transportation, oil market speculation, a bill on price gouging and one to punish oil companies for not using oil drilling leases.

Let's just say that most of those aren't exactly on the Christmas list for the GOP.

While Democrats try to bring those measures to a vote in the House, Republicans will be doing as much parliamentary guerilla warfare as possible in the Senate to force votes on what they think should be at the top of the oil agenda.

That would be bills on oil shale, building new oil refineries on closed down military bases and trying to open new areas to oil and gas exploration.

If you are a believer in true compromise in the Congress, this might be a good week to take a vacation, because the rhetoric of this week will certainly make many people reach for the Congressional Barf Bag here in DC.

A better guide of where we are politically on this issue will come in about six weeks, when lawmakers get ready to go on their August break.

By then, we should know if the Democrats are still able to convince the voters that the high cost of gas is all the fault of Messrs Bush and Cheney, or if the GOP has been able to make some swing state Democrats wonder if their seats are in Jeopardy.

So sit back, relax and put yourself in the Locked And Upright Position.

Let's get ready to rumble.....