Harry Reid delays debt vote

REID POSTPONES VOTE: The Post reports: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid announced late Saturday that negotiations with Minroity Leader Mitch McConnell and the White House had made enough progress that he would delay consideration of his own legislation to avert the debt crisis."

Reid’s announcement disrupted an air of desperation that had settled over the Capitol earlier in the day as rank-and-file lawmakers pleaded with their leaders to set politics aside and strike a bipartisan deal. After months of negotiation and weeks of debate, every black-and-white plan for cutting government spending and raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling was either doomed or had already been shot down. As the battle entered its final hours, the nation’s leaders were left bickering among themselves, unable to agree even on a modest version of the deal they said they were close to sealing a week ago. Their remaining differences were not especially large, but a resolution appeared to remain elusive.

Read the rest of the article. I particularly liked John Kerry's comments. "It really shouldn’t be this difficult," he is reported to have said in his speech on the Senate floor. "I believe there’s a bipartisan consensus here in the Senate . . . if we stop talking past each other." My sentiments exactly.

WHOM WILL THE PUBLIC BLAME? Asks Erza Klei, citing a number of results from polls which reveal how the general public is digesting the 'debtageddon'. "Thus far, this debate isn’t helping anybody. Obama’s approval rating hit 40 percent in the most recent Gallup poll — a new low for him. But it’s devastating the GOP [...] confidence in the Republican leaders has fallen by more than 10 percentage points since February. They’re now well below the Democrats. That’s good news for House Democrats, in particular. But it’s also evidence that Obama’s strategy of trying to personally manage the negotiations hasn’t improved his numbers. Which is why it’s probably helping him that Boehner decided to move the negotiations over to Congress and assume more of the blame himself." Read the whole thing. Althouse hates his 'prissily correct' grammar.