U.S. Capitol building at sunset.

Great job, everybody. Let's go home.
There ya go. Way to go, sports.
Republican staffers sent a letter to the Obama administration chiding them for failing to answer a series of questions from the House Science and Technology Committee. The only problem? They hadn't sent the questions in the first place.
And really, why bother? The questions in the letter to the Office of Management and Budget—the one they didn't send—were about the Obama administration's new ozone regulations and how they are Horrible—it's not like actually getting answers to those questions would affect what Republicans were going to do next.
[The letter] continues, “Unfortunately, the responses we received were deficient and do not substantively address the specific requests contained in our original letter.”
I'll say. It's like the administration didn't even read the not-sent letter. To be fair, this was all a big mixup. The staffer in charge had a trip scheduled, so he prepared the note of irritated condescension in advance, in anticipation of it probably being needed. It wasn't his fault they sent the snide reply letter before they sent the actual inquiry.
Republican aides acknowledged the letter could make it look like they were pre-judging the administration’s response, refusing to be satisfied no matter what. And while they rejected that suggestion, they contended it was reasonable to predict they'd be unsatisfied with the response, based on past experience.
Good save, Republican aides. Sure it looks a little bad, but in the end isn't sending the obnoxious version first just the most efficient use of everybody's time?