[MEGoody]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really see anything wrong with what happened. Sure, they talked, and probably the door was closed. But:

The upcoming meetings were not kept a secret;

The details of the planned legislation were made available to the public;

The Republicans kept their peers in Congress apprised of the status (can't help it Obama didn't keep the Dems posted)

No one (at least on the Republican side) has been offered any goodies to get them to vote for it.

[Qbert]

“No one (at least on the Republican side) has been offered any goodies to get them to vote for it.”

Huh? Grassley announced he was voting for it when they agreed to put the billions of dollars of ethanol subsidies in it. (And there are other Repubs who will do the same thing).

This isn’t the same “deal” that Repub leaders worked out with Obama by any means- it’s all horse-trading now.