The New Republic

Harry Reid gets it: We are in session, if necessary, up to January 5th. That is the clock our Republican colleagues need to run out. It's a long clock. READ MORE >>

I love Matt Yglesias's response to Jon Kyl's suggestion that having the Senate work on December 27 would somehow be an insult to Christians: Yglesias proposes a Jews-only session on Christmas Day. Although note that Christmas happens to fall on a Saturday this year; I believe Joe Lieberman will only show up and vote on Shabbat if his vote is really necessary. READ MORE >>

Jonathan Chait and Ezra Klein both speculate today about the possibility of a GOP revolt against the tax cut deal, and tie it to economic growth and the presidential election (as Chait accurately characterizes my post yesterday, I made a wimpy "prediction" that the GOP might defect). READ MORE >>

Jamelle Bouie has been following judicial confirmations, and he has an excellent post up today criticizing the possible deal Harry Reid has been negotiating with the Republicans over the remaining judges.  With good reason: the deal reportedly would allow confirmation of some—but not all—of the nominees who sailed through the Judiciary Committee with no opposition at all, while le READ MORE >>

Mori Dinauer: Isn't "Triangulation" Just Another Way of Saying "Makes Political Deals?" Perfect. READ MORE >>

Democrats in the 111th Congress still have an unfinished agenda. Republicans, quite sensibly, are using the clock as a weapon; at this point of the session, even a filibuster that doesn’t have the votes to block cloture can still be enough to derail something. What weapons does the majority have to fight stalling? Well, there’s one big one that Harry Reid should be at least threatening, and if necessary invoking: he can add more hours for the Senate to work its will. READ MORE >>

Tim Fernholz offers four suggestions for how liberals could make the tax deal more appetizing. Liberals might have some leverage here to improve the deal a bit, although I doubt that there’s any wiggle room at all on the estate tax -- as it is, Jim DeMint is already against the deal based on the retention of any estate tax at all. READ MORE >>

Fascinating press conference today from Barack Obama. His comments at the end about purists were, from my perspective, absolutely correct, substantively.  The truth is that there are a lot of people who just don't accept that the President of the United States can want something, fight for it, fight effectively and correctly, and still not get it. If it doesn't happen, it must have been—in Obama's words—a "betrayal." Those people are wrong. READ MORE >>

I think Ezra Klein is probably correct about the policy behind the coming deal on tax cuts. But I think he, and most everyone else, is thinking about the politics of how we got here through the wrong lens. Oh, it’s clear that Barack Obama and the Democrats are making a trade they didn’t want, and in that sense are losing. But they’re winning something, too.  READ MORE >>

This week’s Big Thing Question seems to be why Democrats allegedly don’t play "hardball" as well as Republicans do. READ MORE >>