At the same time that the Senate Dems were busy tabling the CCB legislation:

1. Harry Reid was loudly complaining to his caucus that he knew absolutely nothing about any so-called talks between Obama and Boehner. “And”, he said, “I’m the Majority leader, fer pete’s sake..”

2. The hard core liberal Senate Dems were all up in arms at reports that a posssible deal included BIG spending cuts NOW.

The Dem caucus..they’re looking around, realizing that their majority is going the way of the dodo next year, and for many of the old bull hard core core liberal Dems, this is their last swansong. And they’re especially riled up because they know that Obama will sell them out in a split second to get re-elected.

So, they’re determined to enact every part of their agenda they can, and block any and all GOP efforts to pass legislation that can also pass the House.

And unlike the House, where the Dem caucus kept on their defeated chief ideologue, Nancy Pelosi, as Minority leader, senate Dems will NOT retain Reid. There’s going to be a steel-cage match in the Dem caucus between Schumer and Durbin for the minority leader spot, and that’s partly why the Dem caucus is so intractible. After 2012, it will be far more liberal, far more dogmatic, far more hard left, and if you want to run that herd, you have to appeal to them.  A losing army first licks its wounds, then looks arouind for someone else to blame.

So, don’t look for, let alone expect, any reasonableness or a modicum of common sense from the Senate Dems.