The not-so-subtle reference to Republicans as hostage takers drew some snarky comments.
Tonight, the description seems fairly apt.
Repubs have basically vowed not to pass anything until the tax deal is approved.
And now New York has been caught in the middle of it. The Senate basically not voting on a $7.4 billion health bill for Ground Zero first responders because the tax deal hasn't passed. Oh sure they made some noise about how it was going to get paid for, but the reality for New Yorkers is that thousands of people who got sick, still have no help.
New York's junior U.S. Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, called it "outrageous and offensive."
"The men and women who rushed to the burning towers and worked for hundreds of hours on the pile," she said, "did not delay, and the Senate should not have delayed either, certainly not to give tax breaks for millionaires. We should not have to wait for tax deals to do what's right."
How long will this standoff last? Could be a while, if you believe House Democrats, who are now threatening to block the President's plan. They are in nothing less than open rebellion with the White House over the tax deal - especially the estate tax plan, which seemed to come out of nowhere in these negotiations with Republicans.
We're on the story, tonight at 11.
Also at 11, two more wrong-way drunk-driving incidents on Long Island today. That makes five in the past month. Fortunately, most weren't fatal, but when are we going to get with the program with drunk driving? One of the drivers busted today was arrested for drunk driving over the summer. Why in the world should drunk drivers not be put in jail? Zero tolerance? I'm just sayin'.
We're also in Brooklyn tonight, where a porn shop has suddenly opened less than a block away from a public school. The school crossing guards escort students right in front of the store every morning and afternoon.
We found out about it when a parent called us after her 9 year old son came home and in great detail described what he and his friends had seen in the store window.
Charming.
And we're looking at a problem that some iPad and iPhone owners didn't count on: Charges for the games played on the gadgets. One mom found out the hard way: Her 4-year-old racked up nearly $70 in charges on her credit card playing a game on her mom's iPad.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Scott Clark with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11.
