Heaven forbid the United States Senate should actually tackle two big issues at once.

Climate change has slipped so far down on the agenda that at least one key committee chairman has suggested it might have to wait until after the 2010 elections.

A number of factors are conspiring against the Senate version of the bill: a Republican boycott on the Environment and Public Works Committee, a new EPA analysis that could take at least five weeks and wide-ranging disagreements among six competing Senate committee leaders who have jurisdiction.

Democratic leaders also seem unwilling to expend much political capital on climate change when they aren’t even sure when health care reform might get done.

“We’re not going to be bound by any timelines” on health care, Reid told reporters after a closed-door lunch meeting with Senate Democrats.

The more time health care takes, say supporters, the further a climate bill most likely gets pushed back.

The thing about adopting a delaying strategy, as the Republicans are doing on almost all bills, is that the U.S. Senate, as an institution, is designed from the start to aid that strategy. Still, leadership could find a way, and if a climate bill gets put off in the Senate the Democratic leadership will be the first in line for the blame.