McC to Reid: Tell your henchman to stop saying nice things about me. It hurts me

[Torie]

Yes, it is another one of my headings.  Moving right along, this article is a fascinating rendition of apparently what happened behind the scenes to cut a budget deal. It also seems that McConnell was the smartest player around. He is one canny and imaginative legislator, but then I already knew that. If you hit a wall over a word (in this case the word "defense"), well then just change the definition of the word!  I have played that trick myself from time to time in negotiations.

[Torie]

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...so basically they tanked the markets for a week and made our government a laughing stock to the rest of the world so that they could test their whipping apparatus?

And end up with the votes for the real deal, without the House GOP being badly splintered with bad feelings. It was necessary foreplay.