From HuffPost Hill:
CONRAD BUDGET DEBACLE Mike McCauliff and HuffPost Hill: "Senate Democrats are furious at their lead budget negotiator, Sen. Kent Conrad, for crafting a blueprint that they think moves their party too far to the right, a leadership source said. Conrad (D-N.D.), who has been negotiating for months in secret with Republicans in the so-called Gang of Six -- we prefer Slash Mob, but it ain't catching on -- to craft a plan that might win bipartisan acceptance, abruptly dropped the veil and rolled out his own offering Tuesday for his party colleagues -- to brutal reviews. "He's going to be a man without a country," the leadership source said, describing a contentious luncheon. The problem for Democrats is that Conrad has adopted a plan that resembles the work he's done with legislators across the aisle -- which was meant to be a compromise position. In bringing it forward himself, it sets the starting point for the Democratic position in a more conservative spot than the President's budget -- which itself was already a compromise and includes a spending freeze for federal workers amid its many concessions to the GOP."Note how the Republicans' crazy budget proposal is to the far right, and the Democrats' crazy budget proposal is to the far right. That's each party's version of crazy - trying to out-Republican each other.
