Anvikshiki (why can't you have a simpler screen name guy, I have to always copy and paste it, least I screw up your odd string of little letters 
) and Badger (now that is a name I can handle!), I never said the Pubbies do not do, and say, dumb things. But I did not really see myself any really serious give and take negotiations. It was all just a stage show - particularly those staged televised "negotiations" over the Health Care Bill. What a cf that was! And there was a compromise to be had, if folks had well, listened to me for instance.
And it does not help for Obama to call for a meeting with the Pubbies, setting a date, via the press, without checking with them privately first, as to what would be a good date, allowing time for the Pubbies to get their act together, and formulate their position, so that something productive might happen. And then the Dems bitch that the Pubbies are being "rude" to Obama. This kind of thing is just not very helpful. It sucks.
And there certainly was no negotiations over that execrable stimulus bill, aka a massive borrowing of money to ship off to state and local public employees (overmanned, over paid, and over pensioned), which was the last place we needed to spend money. Much of the rest was supposed to go to shovel ready construction projects (a sop to the unions), which were not shovel ready, and a lot of that money just disappeared into the woodwork, and nobody will ever know where it really went. Some states and localities don't even keep adequate records of it. It still makes me angry just thinking about it.
Especially after what happened at the last summitt, you would think the Republicans have a legitimate claim to having some "pre-conditions" set up and in place before going.
This actually seems like cover for the Democrats to buy them more time, hence announcing it without consulting with the GOP leaders first. The Republicans have a unified position on the tax cuts, extend them all permenently, but settle for temporary extentions if necessary. The Democrats are the ones who need to get on the same page. Kent Conrad has an idea, Warner and Schumer another, and Harry Reid wants to go down fighting to make sure the rich tax cuts expire in January.
