UPDATED 14:40 PM EST, December 4, 2012
Democrats and Republicans are haunted by memories of budget deals gone bad. It's making it hard for them to put hope over experience and avert a looming fiscal disaster.
Long gone are the halcyon days when President Lyndon Johnson would meet frequently — sometimes daily — with Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., to cut deals on civil rights and other top issues. Or the congenial after-hours rapport struck between President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill.
