Congress set to throw in the towel (Politico)

Congressional leaders are sneering at each other across the aisle and from one end of the Capitol to the other, locked in yet another year-end death match over massive bills that have real-world implications for every American.

But among the rank and file, the mood is different ? punch-drunk and ready to throw in the towel.

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The battle-weary and unpopular 112th Congress is ready to call it quits on its first session and go home to regroup.

?We?re kind of in the 12th round, and you just stagger to the middle of the ring,? said Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), whose legislation forcing a decision on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline has, at least temporarily, been wrapped into a payroll tax cut package.

In that way, the session is expected to end with a whimper rather than a bang. Fierce debates over every last detail in the fiscal 2011 spending measure, the August debt-limit deal and the many failed deficit-reduction negotiations have given way to a collective sense of resignation.

?It does feel like the piss and vinegar in this place is at a lower level than before,? said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).

Indeed, much as the American people are turned off and have tuned out from Congress, lawmakers seem like they?re over it all after a brutal year.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who, like Kirk, is a veteran of the House, said folks just want to ?wrap things up at the end of the year.?

The sentiment can be seen, in part, in the annoyance Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is hearing from all sides as he tries to use a year-end spending bill as leverage to rewrite the House Republicans? payroll tax cut bill. The White House and many congressional Democrats disdain that measure because its extension of unemployment benefits also scales them back, because it uses spending cuts ? rather than tax hikes on the wealthy ? to offset the cost of the reduction in Social Security taxes and because of the Keystone XL language.

But Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who is fighting for her political career in a tough swing-state race, said Reid?s tone has been unhelpful.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1211_70469_html/43911892/SIG=11mb0loc6/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70469.html

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