With two weeks until Christmas, we have reached a point where you might want to get out the Ouija board to figure out what is going on with the fiscal cliff talks between President Obama and Speaker Boehner.
After a sit down on Sunday at the White House, Messrs. Obama and Boehner had no meeting on Monday, and there seemed to be conflicting signals on what was happening in the negotiations.
Even my colleagues were struggling to figure out where things were going.
At 6:49 pm on Monday evening, the Associated Press posted a story that said the fiscal cliff talks were "at a standstill."
A half hour later, the Wall Street Journal posted a story that said the fiscal cliff "talks take a positive turn."
The Washington Post said the "elements of a deal" were coming into focus.
But Reuters reported that "neither side" was giving ground.
I will let you take your pick.
One interesting thing was that House Republican staffers were putting out the spin that they were still waiting on Democrats to identify spending cuts that the White House would support.
Regardless of the details on that subject, that move was slightly different from a day earlier, when on Sunday, both sides put out the exact same statement, not showing any daylight between the two sides - which of course there still is.
As for the President, he used a trip to Michigan to again say he would not compromise on higher taxes for those at the top of the income scale.
So, it must be time for the Magic 8-ball.
Will there be a deal on the fiscal cliff this week?
Let me shake this thing.
"Reply hazy, try again."
No kidding.
One lawmaker emailed me on Monday night to say that the next 24 hours would be very critical.
Stay tuned.
