In terms of actual weather conditions and temperature readings, it has been a relatively mild summer in Washington, DC. Temperatures have averaged well below normal for the most part, and we are inclined to use a word seldom associated with Washington, DC summers – comfortable. This means that weather has not deflected public attention away from the real sources of heat this summer, political polarization and the fractured U.S. government. Although the word compromise is often used rhetorically here in Washington these days, the actual crafting of political compromises seems a lost art and victim of the particular kind of political heat plaguing Washington these days. We will not bother to recite the long list of contentious issues about...