The end of the supercommittee affair

By Dana Milbank,
WashPost
Published: November 21

It was the political equivalent of breaking up by e-mail.

The supercommittee could have been the most celebrated relationship of our time: An equal pairing of Democrats and Republicans that was to have come up with the budget plan that would bring domestic tranquility for years to come. But the relationship never got past first base, and the committee members ended it Monday afternoon in a most perfunctory manner.

At 4:24 p.m., just after the markets closed, House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, emerged from the office of Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican. “We expect an electronic statement from the co-chairs shortly,” he announced.

Twenty minutes later, this digital Dear John letter landed in inboxes across the capital.

“After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline,” the co-chairs, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), stated.

(More here.)