While Washington, D.C. and the newstalk-osphere are gripped by the story of forced-out USDA bureaucrat Shirley Sherrod, six appropriations subcommittees have advanced FY 2011 spending bills that will collectively spend over $4,000 per U.S. family. (They’ll get to the big ones later.)

Are you paying attention? What are you paying attention to?

There are important social and political kernels within the Sherrod story (and “Journolist”), but in the context of Washington policymaking, they might just be distraction.