Yet an occasion as normal -- and constitutionally foreseen -- as the confirmation of a future Supreme Court associate justice also came with the bitter taste of the partisanship that threatens to tear America apart.

One of McConnell's lieutenants, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, admitted to the possibility that hyperpartisanship would again thwart yet another constitutional norm -- that a President gets votes on his judicial nominees.

"I think it's going to be hard," Thune told CNN. "Because that's kind of the environment we're in right now."

That "environment" was amply demonstrated by Thune's colleagues during Jackson's confirmation process.

Unity (mostly) on Russia but Trump looms large

At times like these, it's notable when Washington agrees on anything.

It might seem a no brainer to condemn an invasion that has caused some of the most heinous atrocities in Europe since World War II. Yet the hangover of the ex-President's hero worship for Putin -- and the reason why some European leaders fear a second Trump term -- was in evidence earlier this week when 63 House members voted against a boilerplate bill expressing support for NATO.

Another aspect of Trump's legacy that still haunts Capitol Hill is his incitement of the terrifying assault by his supporters on January 6, 2021, designed to thwart the congressional certification of Biden's free and fair election victory the previous November.

Trump also expanded on the flagrant lies about a stolen election, which are intensifying his threat to democracy since millions of his supporters believe them. In an extraordinary comment, which raised questions about Trump's grip on reality, he expressed surprise that he had not been reinstated as President because of "massive election fraud."

"How has it not happened? If you are a bank robber, or you're a jewelry store robber, and you go into Tiffany's and you steal their diamonds and get caught, you have to give the diamonds back," he told the Post.

Trump's own attorney general, William Barr, rejected his false claims about a stolen election. And multiple courts threw out his flurry of spurious cases on the grounds they contained no evidence of electoral irregularities.

Covid-19 races through the swamp

Those Americans who disdain Washington often cite what they see as an overly cozy relationship between politicians and the journalists who cover them. The idea was at the core of Trump's rants about the "Washington swamp."

Such perceptions will be hardly be improved by more than a dozen positive Covid-19 tests coming out of one of the most insidery Washington events -- the closed-door Gridiron dinner last weekend. Those who were at the big night out and tested positive include Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

Her case will renew concern about the virus getting closer to Biden, following a flurry of cases among White House staff. Pelosi was with the President as recently as Wednesday for a bill signing and stood at his right elbow. But the White House said Pelosi wasn't considered a close contact of the President because their encounter was fleeting. The commander in chief, who has had his second booster, tested negative Wednesday night.

Two of the oddest recent stories to rattle the capital put a capstone on an often strange week.

This all only came to light after the two men were interviewed as witnesses by a US postal inspector investigating an alleged assault on a mail deliverer. There were no immediate details on the motives for this extraordinary scheme.

This is no laughing matter, given the deadly nature of the disease and the shots anyone who is bitten has to endure to ward off infection.

But in times like these, a rabid fox spreading terror in the citadel of US democracy is the kind of Washington metaphor that writes itself.