MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO OBLIVION

I'm going to be in transit for most of this afternoon, so I'm going to miss all the fun, but it looks as if Harry Reid's going to go ahead with the slightly less awful resolution to this mess:

Sounds like Harry Reid is going to push forward with his debt bill today in the Senate regardless of what happens in the House. "The last train is leaving the station," Reid just said on the Senate floor.

A brief excerpt of Reid's floor speech, as prepared for delivery:

That is why, by the end of the day today, I must take action on the Senate's compromise legislation.

The legislation in point would cut $2.5 trillion from the deficit over the next decade and avert a default on our national debt. It would protect Social Security and Medicare without raising a penny of revenue.

The question us - will today's Republicans break away from the shrill voice of the Tea Party and return to the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan....

In a world that was even 1% sane, Reid would pull out a bill with actual tax increases on the well-heeled as well as spending cuts, get all Democrats behind it, and tell the small bloc of Apocalypse-averse non-teabag Republicans that that was "the last train leaving the station," and enough of them would vote for it.

Or, of course, the last train would be a clean debt-ceiling increase. But that's too sane to imagine.

This is likely our last chance to save this nation from default.