*BTW: The second I hit "publish" I saw that Jed had put up a front pager on this, and I took mine down. After reading his piece I feel that mine has a different take so I am putting it back up. Just in case any redundancy police were interested.
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Tom Cole is not Shelly Capito. He is a long standing OK member o' congress with plenty of chairmanships to prove it. He is influential and he claims to speak for others:
At a meeting of the House GOP whip team earlier in the day, he made the case that Republicans would strengthen their position by joining hands with President Barack Obama now to give most taxpayers what he calls “an early Christmas present” of ensuring their taxes don’t go up on Jan. 1.
Cole’s position is striking because he’s hardly a “squish” — Norquist’s term for a weak-kneed lawmaker — when it comes to Republican orthodoxy. Cole served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
Did I mention he is from OK? So he isn't worried about reelect. He IS worried that the public stands firmly against the current GOP stance.
He might also provide cover for other Republicans looking to make an agreement to avoid a sharp fall off the so-called fiscal cliff.
“I think we ought to take the 98 percent deal right now,” he said of freezing income tax rates for all but the top 2 percent of earners. “It doesn’t mean I agree with raising the top 2. I don’t.”
They are getting it: if they vote to protect the <$250K tax cuts, they are "cutting" taxes, not "raising" them. They can maintain their fealty to Lord Grover without looking like total dicks...
too late!
Jeebus, the knots these people will twist themselves to remain more loyal to a blackmailer than the American people.
... he also said there are other lawmakers in his camp, as well as still others who have been willing to listen.
Boehner knows he can't get enough Red votes to pass anything, even if Ronald Reagan wrote the bill, he just needs about 110 who will vote on something that can pass the Senate and the President. The fact that he is publicly saying today that the GOP has to keep it's ranks tight tells us they are not. Expect the corporate wing to bash them into taking this route at todays high tea. Yes, the rich don't want these taxes raised but by passing the existing Senate bill, you know, the one POTUS said he would "sign today", whipping out pen to prove it, doesn't affect estate taxes, capital gains etc. Nor does it address the spending cuts, SS tax cuts or the debt ceiling. It would however, give them a chip, the Dems chip would be to delay all of those bad decisions for another 6/12 months. We kick the can in exchange for decoupling the <$250K taxes. Why do this? Hey, yesterday Harry Reid sneezed and the market took a real time crap. That's real money, I know, some of it was mine!