Democrats content to wait, watch Republicans sweat over fiscal cliff

Biding their time. If there was any doubt Democrats are willing to let Jan. 1 come and go without a deal with Republicans over the mix of tax hikes and spending cuts triggered at the end of the year, this week should have put it to rest. For one thing, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said so in an interview on CNBC, saying that President Obama is "absolutely" ready to let it happen if Republicans don't agree to letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire.

But there's also a determined lack of urgency among congressional Democrats over trying to force negotiations.

Their aim is to string out the negotiations to give Republicans space to wrap their heads around the idea of raising tax rates on the rich. So far, each passing day seems to add another GOP voice to the chorus coming around on tax hikes. [...]

'Our basic strategy is to let them sweat it out,' said a top Senate Democratic leadership aide. 'We don't necessarily have to do anything.' [...]

'It's to their advantage to slow-walk it. And they're playing rope-a-dope,' said a House Republican leadership aide. 'The quicker we can force the administration into a negotiation, the better off we're going to be.'

Obama and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill are united and refuse to back off their insistence that top tax rates rise for the rich. And congressional Democrats on Wednesday indicated that they have no plans to talk entitlements until Republicans pass the Senate bill.

The House, for its part, had a two-day work week, adjourning yesterday for a very long pre-holiday weekend, suggesting that maybe they're not so hell-bent on forcing the administration's hand quickly. Not if it means, you know, being at work.