Debt ceiling standoff round up

Oy.

• Forty-three Senate Republicans signed a letter saying they oppose Reid's bill. And yes, one of those senators was Sen. John McCain, the same guy whom the media was applauding earlier this week for getting his maverick on because he compared teabaggers to hobbits. 'Cause nothing says "maverick" like crashing the economy for the sake of politics.
• The once and future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gave a kick-ass speech on the floor of the House today:
  

  ?The Speaker chose, when he didn?t have the votes, instead of to reach out in a bipartisan way to see how we could work together, he chose to go to the dark side," Pelosi said to disapproval from Republicans in the chamber. [...]

  "Let me repeat. And I repeat, he chose to go to the dark side by putting forth a bill that he himself told his Members [it] would sink in the Senate?and I add, lead to default, lead to default. We cannot default. We are the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world."

• However, as expected, the House voted down Reid's bill, with an assist from 11 Democrats, including disgraced Rep. David Wu.
• Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were summoned to the White House. Following the meeting, Reid said, "The question is, are we closer to an agreement. The answer is 'no.'" So that's, you know, encouraging.
• Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner held a press conference to announce that they are "confident" there will be a resolution to the debt ceiling standoff. They also tried to lay blame squarely at the foot of the president with this nonsense:

  ?He?s the leader of the Democratic party and the President of the United States,? McConnell said. ?He needs to tell us what he?ll sign.?
  

  Newsflash, fellas: the president has said he'd sign the Reid bill. Any other stupid questions?

• Boehner also met with two or three dozen moderates, "who told him they want a debt-limit deal that attracts a broad swath of Republicans, not just Democrats and a handful of centrists." This, of course, begs the question, "There are moderates in the House?"
• And for you night owls out there, the Senate is holding its cloture vote on Reid's bill at 1:01 AM ET.

As Hunter noted yesterday: So yeah, we're screwed. We're governed by children.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/553jAcGoR0M/-Debt-ceiling-standoff-round-up

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