From USA TODAY:
The roller-coaster debate over raising the nation’s debt limit has forced the White House to explain away, brush aside or even ignore declarations by President Barack Obama and his top aides that no longer served much purpose in the unpredictable negotiations.
First, the White House wanted the debt ceiling vote separated from spending cuts. Now the administration likes them linked. Then, Obama adamantly vowed to reject any short-term deal to raise the borrowing limit. Now the White House says he could make an exception. And Obama pledged to meet with congressional leaders every day until a deal was reached. But the daily meetings stopped or at least disappeared from the president’s schedule.
The White House shifts have been less a matter of flip-flops and more a case of unforeseen twists forcing the administration to reposition as the Aug. 2 deadline to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its financial obligations draws ever closer. Friday evening, after anticipation of a deal had built all week, things fell apart when House Speaker John Boehner abruptly broke off the talks…
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A terrible “USA Today” assessment article on the debt limit issue. Negotiations are just that, negotiations. You start and stop, change and hold firm etc.
The problem here was that a deal was reached, the news leaked, and the Republican House members screamed (Rove included) and Boehner was called back to the House (the tool shed) for a little chat. If a deal was to be reached it could not come from negotiations and agreement with the President! That would legitimize the President. No, No, No!
Now, with most of the elements of a deal worked out, Boehner and the House Republican majority bolt from the White House claiming no deal was made, or could be made, with this particular, “tax and spend” President. And so, Republicans are going to come up with their own non-negotiable proposal/demand/deal next week. That demand will be so close to what has already been agreed upon (the non-deal, deal) that the President will be hard pressed not to sign it but, the credit will then go to Boehner and the Republicans. If it is rejected by the President, the blame for any negative fallout will be with the President.
This nefarious and totally foreseeable development is what Boehner called “stepping back to see the entire forest instead of the single tree” i.e. the single “tree” of a negotiated deal with the White House vs the “forest” of Republican control of the White House and Senate in 2012.
We are now are experts on the politics of everything but the substance of nothing. Reality, reactions, and consequences, however, quietly move forward in subtle and accumulating dimensions on many fronts. Connecting our national “dots” is an increasingly frightful exercise.