Our political Quote of the Day comes from The Christian Science Monitor which gives this take on how the payroll tax exemption battle:
In the end, carrying on the fight was a losing proposition for a party that took back the House in 2011 on a pledge never to raise taxes. And – in a new development – Democrats learned to say, “No.”
The deal marks a capitulation by the speaker, who appeared at the podium alone to announce the agreement, worked out with Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada and endorsed by President Obama.
It also marks a breakthrough for Senate Democrats and Mr. Obama, who said “no” from the start of this impasse – and stuck with it.
In short:
The Party of YES became the Party of NO — and the Party of No became the party of no political sense or real leadership.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.