Democrats rolled into DC last January with the fervor of any party that's been waiting to get back in power for a decade.

But their hopes to kick some legislative butt got bogged down by Ground Hog Day head-butting over Iraq and a weak majority in the Senate (where a record 62 bills were filibusterd). Any chance of passing major bipartisan legislation - for example on immigration reform - was handicapped by the president's increasingly feeble political capital.

Even so, not nothing got done. Here cJ recaps the low-to-moderate amount of work Congress accomplished in '07.

Education. As part of its kick-off campaign, Dems kept true to their promise to throw more support to college tuition. With less fanfare, Congress also renewed the Head Start bill, HR 1429, which pays for pre-school programs for low income kids, and which has been held up for renewal for a couple of years.

Energy & the Environment. Congress managed to pull off an energy bill in the last minutes of '07s calendar, passing a bill to bring up gas mileage standards, phase out the incandescent bulb (along with other efficiency mandates) and boost biofuel production.

Government. Left over from '05s Jack Abramoff scandals, lobbyist and earmark reform efforts wrapped up this year with a bill ordering more disclosure of lobbyist efforts and earrmark supporters.

Health. An attempt to widen coverage of health care for low income kids, the SCHIP program, got tripped up.

Housing. With the mortgage market on shaky ground, Congress started looking at ways to help out families defaulting on their sub-prime loans and also to shore up the credit market. The only bill that got signed into law, HR 3648, would keep families from being taxed on any mortgage debt they were forgiven (which is normally taxed). Congress got half way through passing HR 1852, which would open up more loans through the Federal Housing Administration.

Intelligence. After griping for months about the administrations overly-nosey NSA wiretap program, Congress passed a six month (sort of emergency-ish) bill giving the president wide latitude to listen in on foreign phone calls through - and to - the US. Congress will probably rein the bill in when it needs to be re-upped in February, 2008.

Iraq. Although it got the greatest play time in Congress, efforts to set a timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq went no where. The farthest Democrats got was to set benchmarks for "the surge" and demand a September report on the war's progress, HR 2206, which they got - but which led only to more stalemating over withdrawal.

Jobs. Minimum Wage.

National Security. Congress passed a package of measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission but not before put into action. CFIUS.

Trade. Dems brought a bunch of free trade deals back to the drawing board - to make them more labor and enviro friendly - but only passed one, with Peru, in the end. One of the biggest things to happen in trade is what didn't happen, that is the president's "fast track" trade authority ran out this year without congressional renewal.

Other stuff: Congress extended a Terrorism Risk Insurance bill, HR 2761, passed a water works bill, HR 1495, okayed a Sudan divestment bill, S 2271, made it harder for the mentally ill to buy guns, passed a bill to boost US competiveness in science and tech, HR 2272, reauthorized the Food and Drug Administration, HR 3580,

Half way there: A number of bills made it through the House and/or Senate but never made it into law including: a massive farm bill, a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, HR 2881, a patent reform bill, HR 1908, a wage discrimination bill, HR 2831, a toy safety act, HR 4040, an intelligence reauthorization bill, HR 2082, a measure to free up Section 8 housing, HR 1851, a "card check" bill that would suppot unionizing, HR 800, a stem cell research bill, S 5, a bill limiting who can own an Industrial Loan Company, HR 698, a measure to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, HR 1427, a sexual orientation hate crimes bill, HR 1592, to proteFOIA.