I'm telling you now

John Amato at Crooks & Liars sees the Republicans unable to come together to pick up their victory with Obama's latest reach across the aisle, with pleased astonishment:

Did Christmas come early?... I didn't think the GOP and Boehner would be this crazy and let it all slip away, but the lunacy of the TeaBirchers knows no bounds.

Ah, maybe Amato didn't think so, but perhaps there were those who did, because I think I've seen this game before, and it's not exactly 11-dimensional—more like a Fool's Mate, which Obama uses again and again: making offer upon abject, humiliating offer ("take my shirt! take my daughters!")  while the Republicans, getting greedier and greedier, hold out, thinking, if he's ready to give us that, what's next?

Batman and Wonder Woman. From The Thought Experiment.

And then when people are starting to get really angry and the Republicans dare not hold out any longer, that last offer isn't there any more—Lucy sweeps the football behind her back and the Republicans are on their collective ass, looking bewildered; the deal is far less dreadful than we'd been led to expect. Just wait! It'll turn out that chained indexing doesn't kick in till 2032!

For a more coherent and better defended statement, see the formerly Angry, still Black, always a Lady Imani Gandy's great piece.