ACCORDING TO THE AP, the Senate GOP has come up with a plan to address the kind of bio-threats that keep sensible, reasonably well-informed people up at night.

By creating a federal agency shielded from public scrutiny, some lawmakers think they can speed the development and testing of new drugs and vaccines needed to respond to a bioterrorist attack or super-flu pandemic.

The proposed Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, or BARDA, would be exempt from long-standing open records and meetings laws that apply to most government departments, according to legislation approved Oct. 18 by the Senate health committee.

Those exemptions would streamline the development process, safeguard national security and protect the proprietary interests of drug companies, say Republican backers of the bill. The legislation also proposes giving manufacturers immunity from liability in exchange for their participation in the public-private effort.

Well, that sounds reasonable enough, I guess. After all, the nightmare scenarios involving biological weapons and naturally occurring pandemics are pretty damned terrifying. But then there's this:

Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike agree the drug industry needs some protections to encourage it to produce emergency stocks of vaccines and drugs, but Democrats have balked at providing blanket immunity without first establishing a compensation fund for patients....

The push for liability exemptions may force the Burr bill to the sidelines until the next session of Congress, Republican and Democratic aides said. But [Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's spokeswoman Amy] Call said Frist intends to pursue the legislation.

Okay, now, let me see if I've got this straight. Getting this research off the ground is so important, so vital to the health and safety of the American people, that it justifies setting aside this nation's long-standing commitment to open and accountable government. But it's not so important that the governing party is willing to actually, you know, compromise to get it done this session?

That's today's GOP, isn't it? Obsessively ideological, relentlessly partisan ... and just plain hazardous to your health.