Here’s what they argue: Extend the tax cuts for the richest Americans – in fact, make them permanent. Doing so would increase the deficit by $700 billion over the next decade, but this doesn’t matter. We did tell you that we’re the party of fiscal responsibility, however, so to prove it we’ll block the extension of unemployment benefits for millions of jobless workers. Three weeks before Christmas…

That’s because the GOP has been disciplined and purposeful in pursuit of its goals. I happen to think those goals are cynical, situational and ultimately bad for the country: Block the Democrats whenever and wherever possible, try to limit President Obama to a single term, and prevent any meaningful departure from the trickle-down economic philosophy that has left the nation’s finances in such a parlous state. It’s an agenda that may lack nobility, but not clarity.

What is the Democratic Party’s bottom line? Who knows?