Why the fiscal cliff standoff is boring America to death

This time, there’s little energy in the Capitol and even less interest amongst the public. So far, at least, reporters haven’t found themselves camped out on uncomfortable marble hall floors for hours at time or called back to the Capitol at a moment’s notice. There have been no walkouts, few public recriminations. In fact, aside from the occasional “no progress” statements by either side, there’s been very little of anything at all…

Adding to that general election fatigue is the fact that official Washington has very much become the boy who cried wolf. Since the fight over extending the Bush tax cuts during the last lame duck Congress in 2010, the fiscal cliff is the fourth time the White House and Republicans have engaged in a game of political chicken with the fate of the nation’s economy on the line.

“People are sick of it,” one longtime operative said of the various episodes of brinkmanship that have been the hallmark of the 112th Session of Congress…

Still, House and Senate aides on both sides of the Capitol say there simply isn’t the organized interest now that there was in the debt ceiling. “People are tired,” a House aide said recently.