Another year's August calm settles over Washington.
Traffic is sparse, restaurants languid.
The Washington media legions look for stories, too often in vain. A soothing silence pervades the Capitol campus and the halls of congressional office buildings. Yet everyone knows that from the day after Labor Day in the first week of September, the pace will quicken, the phones will not let up, the breakfast meetings will run three and four days a week, the gyms will again be filled with clock-conscious body builders. Those who remain in Washington are thinking ahead. The autumn will be busy and important for the United States and China.