"We're not going to hold this up at the end of the day," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the incoming ranking member of the House Budget Committee and an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said twice on "Fox News Sunday."
Van Hollen said Democrats plan to put "to the test" the question of whether Republicans will block tax cuts for all Americans to protect cuts for top income brackets. But he said Democrats would allow the tax deal to become law if the alternative was allowing income tax rates to rise for all Americans.
"There will be an opportunity for the House to work its will," Van Hollen said. ...Dan Friedman
___
What is simply not possible, no matter how energetically you perform your Cartoon Calisthenics, is a deal in which the Republicans don't get anything they want. Yet that is precisely what the progressive opponents of this deal are demanding. Moreover, they seem to believe that if only Obama were smarter, or meaner, or more strategic, he could deliver the impossible. They might as well ask him to deliver the moon, and the stars, wrapped up with a big red bow and hauled down their chimney by twelve reindeer.
I think that the House Democrats are better negotiators than this. ...Megan McArdle
___
Despite current liberal anger over the tax deal Obama cut with Republicans, former presidential candidate Howard Dean -- a darling of many liberals -- agreed with Axelrod that Obama will not face a challenge from the left when he runs for reelection.
"I don't think he's going to face an opponent in the Democratic primary," Dean, the former Democratic National Committee Chairman and Vermont governor said on CBS's Face the Nation. "I think that would be bad thing for the country and a bad thing for the Democratic Party." ...Dan Friedman
___
Americans were virtually split over whether the president should be reelected in two years, with opponents of Obama slightly edging supporters.
Forty-five percent of U.S. adults said in a Bloomberg National Poll released on Monday that Obama deserves to be beat in 2012. Forty-two percent said the president deserves reelection, while four percent said that their decision depended on alternatives. Nine percent were unsure. ...The Hill
