And Now, Another Episode of "Guess Who Said It?"

Guess who said:

In his effort to fight what he regards as Republican zealots, President Obama is caught between these two strategies. He never quite pushes budget showdowns to the limit to discredit Republicans, but he never offers enough to the members of the Republican common-sense caucus to tempt them to break ranks.

Your hilarious answer will be forthcoming after Lent.

Or you can use The Google to discover which compulsively dishonest Conservative columnist* will always snap back to his default "Blame the Democrat" posture like wingnut shape memory polymer
no matter how many times Jonathan Chait or Ezra Klein or Steven Benet or Charles P. Pierce publicly boil or freeze or sledgehammer him with the facts.

Because, you see, none of those people are inside what this compulsively dishonest Conservative columnist might call his personal "friendship circle":

Or you can try what might be called friendship circles. In this approach, you first establish the norms of legitimacy that should govern the competition. You create a Geneva Convention of domestic political conduct or global cyberespionage. Then you organize as broad a coalition as possible to agree to uphold these norms.

Finally, you isolate the remaining violators and deliver a message: If you join our friendship circle and abide by our norms, the benefits will be overwhelming, but if you stay outside, the costs will be devastating.

This "friendship circle" is a magic, happy place where everybody's kids are transported to and from the very best private schools by the very best nannies and the streets are paved with lecture circuit gold.

A magic, happy place sustained by a mutual nonaggression pact which stipulates that under no circumstances will they ever call each other out on the grotesque frauds they perpetrate on the American public every single day.

A magic, happy place which you and I would refer to as the Beltway Village Media.

*(Trick question: it's all of them)