Though not so much on the blog, in person I tend to regularly bag on the goings-on on Capitol Hill. It's the lack of care that goes into the legislative process, the willful and rewarded ignorance of some members of Congress, the "expertists" who get ever bigger jobs by repeating the same tripe never validated by facts, or reality, or the outside world. While I'm actively trying to rid myself of that sort of cynicism, this sort of thing simply does not help. The national security editor of Congressional Quarterly regularly ends interviews by asking the subject -- legislator, national security-type, what have you -- if they can explain in broad strokes the difference between Shiite and Sunni. Here is a typical response:

Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who heads a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A.'s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information, was...dumbfounded when I asked her if she knew the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

"Do I?" she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. "You know, I should." She took a stab at it: "It's a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it's the Sunnis who're more radical than the Shia."

Did she know which branch Al Qaeda's leaders follow?

"Al Qaeda is the one that's most radical, so I think they're Sunni,” she replied. "I may be wrong, but I think that's right."