An online newsletter recently carried a headline that read, quite simply, “The missing branch.” I didn’t have to read further to know it was about the lowly state into which Congress has fallen, particularly with its failure to respond to the administration’s ongoing encroachments on its constitutional prerogatives.

Missing in action is not an enviable position for a major institution of the federal government.

Through it all I have wondered how the institution’s decline has affected average House members and their expectations of what their job should be. Tarring Congress with a broad brush has been a popular sport for decades now, especially by columnists and commentators (present company included). But do we neglect the trees for the forest? Have we been giving short shrift to the dozens of members who labor quietly in the vineyards, serving their districts, their party, and the country with little thought of how they are portrayed in the media? I’m talking here about the workhorses versus the showhorses.

This thought slammed home to me last week in reading in the Washington Post last week about the passing of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) who died of esophageal cancer. I made........

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