Artur Davis: Payroll Tax Failure: Who is To Blame?

John Boehner and House Republicans are no winners here. They had a chance to paint a payroll tax cut as a threat to Social Security in early 2009 and they squandered it.  Left without a substantive case, they are stuck arguing process and minutiae, and look disorganized on top of it.

But before Democrats salivate too much, the trend in 2011 was that every time Congress descended into bickering, Barack Obama suffered collateral damage. For independents, congressional dysfunction underscored Obama’s failure to alter the gridlock in Washington.

The saving grace for both sides: in a week where the country is finishing its Christmas shopping or making travel plans, it’s a tree falling too far in the forest to make much of a sound.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)