Fineman: "The fix is in on tax cuts" (with video)

Gaius Publius (AMERICAblog) with video (03:56) from MSNBC-Countdown:

Countdown's first segment on Tuesday was about the Bush tax cuts, and well worth your time, especially if you like horror shows.

But I'd like to focus on the follow-up interview with Howard Fineman. Listen; then tell me why this doesn't translate to — Hey kids, the fix is in.

The key quote from Fineman, at 1:10 in the clip (above):

Everybody in the city knows that the president has essentially agreed to accept a two- or three-year extension of tax cuts for all Americans, including the wealthiest.

It seems that this [working] group [with senators and Tim Geithner, etc.] is designed to come to the conclusion that they know they're already supposed to come to and then give it back to the president.

The Republicans are going to make a big show of being reasonable by reluctantly giving up on their desire to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest into infinity. And they're going to be the reasonable ones here, so they're going to claim, by just agreeing to two or three years. And the president's going to accept it.

More on that working group here. Can't get much plainer than that. The fix is in on tax cuts.

I think we elected a Republican.