THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The Republican run Congress has made it clear that it has no real intention of finding any dirt on Donny Dinkydick in connection with his sale of the US government to Russia.

The exchange, described by three people with knowledge of it, typified the political morass that is crippling the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — and whether the Trump campaign colluded in any way.

But the problems extend beyond that panel. All three committees looking into Russian interference — one in the House, two in the Senate — have run into problems, from insufficient staffing to fights over when the committees should wrap up their investigations. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry has barely started, delayed in part by negotiations over the scope of the investigation. Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, while maintaining bipartisan comity, have sought to tamp down expectations about what they might find.

Nine months into the Trump administration, any notion that Capitol Hill would provide a comprehensive, authoritative and bipartisan accounting of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy appears to be dwindling.

“Congressional investigations unfortunately are usually overtly political investigations, where it is to one side’s advantage to drag things out,” said Mr. Gowdy, who made his name in Congress as a fearsome investigator of Democrats. He added, “The notion that one side is playing the part of defense attorney and that the other side is just these white hat defenders of the truth is laughable.”

Instead, he said, he is looking to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, to conduct an apolitical investigation.

None of the challenges have thus far stopped the committees. And given the closed-door nature of their work, prominent new avenues of inquiry could always emerge, such as Russia’s use of social media to sow chaos and discord, capable of influencing the public discourse.

But all three are up against a ticking clock, with Republicans in both chambers eager to wrap up the investigations before too long.

God Forbid any of this should extend into the election season and possibly hurt the cause. Voters understand these are fake investigations, but this time the public is aware that there is a seriously real problem underneath it all. The sooner the GOP can drop this, the sooner the public will forget it.