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At the end of another demoralizing and unproductive Washington week, it struck us that the messaging of failure is a very delicate business — for members of both flailing parties.

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer's straight-faced characterization of the House GOP's rejection of his immigration bill as "encouraging" best illustrated the problem.

For nothing was hopeful and nobody was a winner in the nation's capital this week.

Certainly not Schumer, who emerged from a White House meeting on immigration Thursday to utter this mind-boggling assessment: "If I had to choose a word for yesterday's House meeting, it would be 'encouraging.' "

It was also a bad week for Republicans, who may be reflecting the reality of their base by pushing back on an immigration overhaul that includes a path to citizenship, but who are increasingly seen by the nation's voters as responsible for Washington gridlock.

Cut 'Extraneous' Food Aid

Republicans this week also managed to write out of the farm bill the food stamp nutrition program used by 15 percent of Americans.

The move, certain to be squelched by the Senate, is largely symbolic. GOP messaging seemed a bit awkward: "What we have carefully done is exclude some extraneous pieces," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, about taking the food program out of the farm bill.

Voters may be forgiven, however, for finding their "who-to-blame" calculation more complicated this week, especially after a filibuster rules snit-fest Thursday morning on the Senate floor involving Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

A taste:

Reid: "Senator McConnell broke his word. The Republican leader has failed to live up to his commitments. He's failed to do what he said he would do — move nominations by regular order except in extraordinary circumstances. I refuse to unilaterally surrender my right to respond to this breach of faith."

McConnell: "No majority leader wants written on his tombstone that he presided over the end of the Senate. Well, if this majority leader caves to the fringes and lets this happen, I'm afraid that's exactly what they'll write."

Reid: "If anyone thinks since the first of the year that the norms and traditions of the Senate have been followed by the Republican leader, they're living in Gaga Land."

On the Crucifixion

"There's only one reason to be crucified under the Roman Empire and that is for treason or sedition. Crucifixion, we have to understand, was not actually a form of capital punishment for Rome. In fact, it was often the case that the criminal would be killed first and then crucified. Crucifixion was, in reality, a deterrent; it was an obvious symbol to subject peoples of what happens when you defy the will of Rome. Which is why crucifixions always had to happen in public places: at crossroads, on hills, at the entrance of cities. So for that reason, crucifixion was a punishment reserved ... solely for the most extreme crimes, crimes against the state. ...

"And so, that's why if we really want to know who Jesus was and what he meant, we should start not at the beginning of the story — with him in a manger — but at the end of the story, with him on a cross. Because if Jesus was in fact crucified by Rome, he was crucified for sedition. He was crucified because he challenged the Roman occupation."

On the Roman destruction of Jerusalem

"They murdered tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Jews in the city. The survivors were scattered to the winds. [The Romans] renamed Jerusalem, in a sense. They wanted to create the impression that there were never any Jews to begin with in the city. This was a moment of deep psychic trauma for the Jews. What made it worse, however, is that as a result of the revolt, Judaism in the Roman Empire became a pariah. It became almost an illegal religion. Jews were not seen as a legitimate cult among the many, many other cults that existed within the Roman Empire.

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This week, the Canadian tragedy is morphing into something very different. It is becoming Exhibit A in the political case for building pipelines — as well as for opposing them.

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On Jesus as a political figure

"[In one story,] Jesus walks into the temple, and he begins to cleanse it. He turns over the tables of the money-changers, who are exchanging the foul foreign currency of the Roman Empire with the Hebrew shekel, which was the only currency that the temple would accept. And then, of course, in a loud, booming voice, he says, 'It is written that my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations, and you have made it a den of thieves.'

"Now, as all historians recognize, this was the action that precipitated his arrest, his torture and his execution by the state. And there's a very simple reason for that: The temple was not just the center of the Jewish cult; it was, in many ways, the representation of the power and the presence of the Roman Empire."

On using The Bible as a source

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