Obama, Cantor Debt Ceiling Talks Now Just Debt Ceiling Screaming

OOOH guys, there is a gross brawl going on in the lunchroom! "I heard Obama pushed Cantor!" "I heard Cantor tried to kick him!" "He started it!" "He interrupted me!" And that is your main political headline this morning, that both parties are flinging rumors about what happened inside a closed-door meeting between Obama and Cantor as they fought about the debt deal. Is it really different from any other Day in Washington? No, except that everyone is getting a righteousness boner from these rumors that Obama cold screamed at Eric Cantor, because Cantor is a shrill weasel. Immediately after Obama left the latest talks cursing the Republicans, Cantor ran out to the reporters to tattle on the bully, and this is Major News.

Webzine POLITICO breathlessly reports:  

When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts — Obama began to lecture him.

“Eric, don’t call my bluff,” the president said, warning Cantor that he would take his case “to the American people.” He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald Reagan, the president said — would sit through such negotiations.

Democratic sources dispute Cantor’s version of Obama’s walk out, but all sides agree that the two had a blow up. The sources described Obama as “impassioned” but said he didn’t exactly storm out of the room.

“Cantor’s account of tonight’s meeting is completely overblown. For someone who knows how to walk out of a meeting, you’d think he’d know it when he saw it,” a Democratic aide said. “Cantor rudely interrupted the president three times to advocate for short-term debt ceiling increases while the president was wrapping the meeting. This is just more juvenile behavior from him and Boehner needs to rein him in, and let the grown-ups get to work.”

"Even Ronald Reagan could not have coped with your steaming pile of crap" is apparently the worst insult you can throw at a Republican?

Meanwhile, Moody's announced they are putting the U.S. credit rating "under review" just to add to the hysteria, including a potential downgrading if lawmakers only get a short-term debt deal passed. Ancient gay sea turtle Mitch McConnell responded to this news of pending apocalypse with his usual, "as long as Obama doesn't get re-elected, then whatever." [ Politico / HuffPo ]