I was going to publish this earlier, but held back with the news that the House GOP may blow the whole thing up.  However, after Markos's new front page diary where he states "The ONLY leverage Democrats have in this fight is tax rates," I feel like this is worth posting:

There is a lot of outrage on our side for "giving up leverage" and not tackling all of the major fiscal issues facing us, like the debt ceiling and sequestration, and instead focusing mainly on the tax cuts portion of the deal.  Here's what I don't understand:  For the last month, isn't this exactly what our side has been advocating for?

Post-thanksgiving, those of us on the left, from the president, to labor, to progressive organizations, and this website, had all been advocating for Congress to "extend the middle class tax cuts now." The President used the bully pulpit to call for the House to vote on the Senate bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for those making $250k or less. Nancy Pelosi tried to force a discharge petition through the House to force a vote.  We were all asked to sign petitions and call our Congressperson to demand that taxes for the middle class be extended first, outside of the framework of the rest of the deal.