A day after President Obama's jobs bill ran aground because of a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate, there was lots of talk in the hallways of the Capitol about finding a bipartisan way forward, but not much overt evidence that it would happen any time soon.
"We'll introduce individual pieces of the Jobs Act," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, "proposals Republicans have supported in the past, in the next few weeks."
In other words, not tomorrow.
No one was speculating much on what would be the best items to focus on, though money for roads, bridges and infrastructure was mentioned by members of both parties.
"I hope we'll look at that as part of an overall element," said Sen. Marco Rubio (R- FL). "I think that's an important part of economic growth."
"I don't know a Democrat or Republican that doesn't need infrastructure," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).
But saying an issue is important and finding ways to pay for it are two different things, especially in the current political environment.
While Senate Democrats did not agree on a jobs bill game plan in a Wednesday lunch meeting, Manchin told a knot reporters it is important for his party to produce something soon.
"The Democrats are the majority party in the Senate right now; the majority party is expected to lead," said Manchin, who came close to opposing his leadership on the jobs bill test vote.
"It's pretty obvious a lot of Democrats don't want to support the bill the President put forward," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who predicted that it would take time for Democrats and the White House to come up with another plan.
"I don't think it comes back up anytime soon," Chambliss told me just off the Senate floor.
Chambliss also noted that Republicans remain very angry after a rules showdown last Thursday, where Democrats used a simple majority vote to change Senate precedents and take away the ability of the GOP to force votes on certain amendments.
"After last Thursday night, it's going to be difficult around here for awhile," Chambliss said.
Over on the House side of the Capitol, the roles were reversed a bit, as Democrats there are demanding action by the GOP majority, which is also talking about cobbling together a few of their own ideas with a few from the White House.
"Not everything the president outlined is something that we agree with; certainly not everything that we’ve outlined is something the president would agree with," said Speaker John Boehner.
"But our job on behalf of the American people is to find common ground and to do our best for them, and we will continue to do that," Boehner added.
The leadership of both parties was talking compromise - getting that to happen is still to be determined.
