Our opinion of Congress might not be quite as dire as some of those public opinion polls that show its approval rating at historic, single-digit lows. Still, it’s tough for any American to hold in very high regard what passes for leadership these days in Washington.

We’ve suspected for some time that this would be mostly a lost year for Congress, with its deepening partisan divide shoved even wider by election-year posturing. The evidence has shown up on issues major and minor, from debt-ceiling fights to payroll tax cuts to Congress’ relative inaction on doing something, anything, to clear the path for job creators.

No compromise, no retreat, no legislating. Stock in poison pills is up; everything else is down.

The latest unsurprising disappointment comes from Majority Leader Harry Reid and some key Senate Democrats, who have planted themselves firmly in the path of a rare bit of compromise between the Republican-led House and President Barack Obama.

The House bill is actually a package of six bills intended to ease certain Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and help small businesses raise more capital. The thinking being, of course, that these small businesses, the backbone of U.S. job creation, would use that capital to expand and, well, create more jobs.

The JOBS Act — for Jumpstart Our Business Startups — passed the House by a 390-23 vote, shockingly lopsided in these divided times. Obama, mostly frustrated in battling with Congress over job creation, endorsed the House bill. “Here’s a chance not only to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and create jobs, but to show that we can work together around here to get things done on a bipartisan basis,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday.

Birds chirped and music played, right up to the point that Reid’s Democrats decided to throw on the brakes to extract political advantage. Now, to be fair, it’s not as if House and Senate Republicans haven’t played the same game on past issues, so our pique is bipartisan.

Still, while Senate Democrats play legislative three-card monte — insisting on voting on a substitute version that has no chance at the needed 60 votes — small businesses here in the hinterlands wait and wonder if Congress will ever get its act together.

The thing is, the JOBS Act isn’t the boldest attempt ever conceived to get private businesses hiring again, just the latest. As we noted in January, “the most insidious threat to the fragile recovery could come from inside the Beltway. Last year, partisan rancor over the debt ceiling battered budding economic confidence and led to a historic downgrade of U.S. debt. Congress must avoid another such confidence-shattering debacle.”

Except Congress just can’t help itself, when too many of its members see only Election Day ahead, not the rocks they’re steering toward.