i joked about it before, but it is really remarkable to watch the white house refuse to budge in the face of democratic criticism of the president's tax deal with the GOP. have they ever refused to budge on anything else since obama came into office? this isn't an administration that is known to stand firm on anything.
which is funny because, i suspect, the democratic revolt is partly driven by the obama administration's excessive budging in the past. a lot of the unease with extending the tax cuts "temporarily" for another two years is that everyone expects the president to budge again when the two years is up. if obama had shown the same spine he is displaying now against the democrats during the last two years in dealing with the republicans, i doubt there would be a revolt.
