So I'm watching MSNBC, and all the talk is about Senator Mitch McConnell trying to work out some kind of deal on the so called fiscal cliff. Harry Reid and McConnell made nice for the TV cameras, and speculation is rampant among the pundits that master negotiator McConnell will somehow craft a deal that passes before the end of the year. It will be a scaled down deal that prevents tax increases on the middle class and extends unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed.
Don't bet on it.
Let's just focus on the most obvious obstacle to any deal: Mitch McConnell; this is the same man who swore that his number one goal was defeating Obama and making him a one term president. McConnell also shook hands with Harry Reid and promised to behave himself after the 2010 Election. Reid - under the insane Senate rules or culture or whatever you want to call it - couldn't come out and call McConnell a liar. Instead, Reid stated in a recent speech on filibuster reform that a handshake on filibusters wasn't going to cut it any more. This was Senate speak for "I don't trust you Senator McConnell."
Only a few days ago, McConnell was still spreading his lies about this fiscal mess that Republicans created. McConnell stated that nothing had been done in the Senate to address this artificial crisis. As many on this blog have pointed out, the Senate already dealt with this issue. McConnell went on to harp about how the same "nothing" that had been done was not sent over to the House for a vote.
If you have not done anything or voted on a bill in the Senate, how can you send the non-existent bill to the House?
Given McConnell's track record of lies, I don't trust him to negotiate in good faith. McConnell may not be technically a Tea Party madman, but he has been kissing the Tea Party's collective ass. All those filibusters in the Senate that McConnell engineered were done to placate the crazies and bigots back in Kentucky. McConnell is unpopular with the Kentucky Tea Party, and he is scared of a primary challenge. He has to be seen as NEVER compromising with evil, and evil is defined by a significant number of Kentuckians as helping Obama with anything.
Everything McConnell does has to be seen through that political prism.
So if I was a betting man, I'd say no deal is possible, especially with Mitch McConnell.