Pat Toomey, Barack Obama Pretended to be Friends Over Dinner Last Night


Last  night–before he ahem, droned on and on last night to temporarily filibuster Barack Obama’s controversial C.I.A. Director nominee–Pat Toomey apparently had a lovely dinner party with the POTUS.

“It was a candid and constructive conversation on both sides,” said Toomey, one of a handful of Republican senators invited to dine with the president at the high-end Jefferson Hotel, a few blocks north of the White House. “Most of the discussion was about fiscal issues, although it did extend beyond fiscal and budgetary issues.”

Great! Except Toomey and Obama agree on basically nothing, and as the man himself told the Inky last night: “I think there are areas where we could reach common ground, I think that is possible, but it’s not going to happen over one dinner.” More ominous, still, for our fleeting hopes of bipartisanship: “The White House has said Obama picked up the bill, though one of the senators told reporters outside that several people paid. [Inquirer]