After a chaotic day of wailing Republican angst, the House on Tuesday night finally passed a bill that would extend the Bush tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans. The bill's passage caps months of maddeningly inconclusive negotiations between the White House and several players in Congress, and it wasn't until the last couple days that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Joe Biden crafted a compromise that was able to pass the Senate with flying bipartisan colors.
Of course, it seems unlikely that the compromise will herald a new era of comity between the two parties. There was apparently no love lost between the negotiations' principal players, particularly House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). According to Politico, this happened:
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