Democratic leaders are still talking about votes next week on extending the Bush Tax Cuts, as all signs point to lawmakers leaving Washington, D.C. by October 1, so they campaign for November.

The House returns to session today after six days off, as Democrats will give final approval later this week to a small business bill that's been hyped by the White House.

The Senate meanwhile is gridlocked over a defense bill, as Democrats failed to attract one Republican vote yesterday in a procedural test vote.

While a lot of the headlines were about what this meant for the ban on gays in the military and the immigration DREAM Act, it really boiled down to one thing - amendments.

Republicans want to be able to offer amendments and have them voted on.  Democrats aren't interested in that.

And so, we have a political deadlock with finger pointing on both sides.

About the time of that vote, Senate Democrats were emerging from a closed door meeting, where they had discussed what to do about the expiring Bush tax cuts.

The mood in the hallways on the Senate side of the Capitol was interesting yesterday, because while Democrats talked optimistically about threading the needle and finding 60 votes for a Bush tax cuts extension of some sort, no one seemed to be offering any plan to do that, though there was talk of adding provisions on estate taxes to it.

One plan could have the debate begin on tax cuts in the Senate as early as Thursday, with both sides getting one vote on a tax plan that they support.  

Right now, neither side will have 60 votes, which will mean more gridlock on this until after the elections.

The bottom line is that this Congress seems headed for the earliest departure from Washington in an election year since 1960.