cut extension. wolf blitzer, of course, is the host of the situation room, and he is at our political desk right now. wolf, we've got taxes. we've got s.t.a.r.t. we've got movement on don't ask, don't tell. all of those stories would be a big story individually, and you've got all of them at once. >> they're trying to get through these final days of this lame duck congress as much as possible. it's by no means easy. i think one of the reasons the president was ready to accept this compromise with the republicans is he was loping he could get this done. then they could get on to some other final issues that the republicans were threatening to block, including it new s.t.a.r.t. treaty with russia that's really important with the obama administration. they want to get that through. they'd like to get other issues through as well. remember the republicans in the house and the senate, they were threatening to try to block everything. they have that ability in the senate given the numbers, given the fact that you need 60 votes to break a filibuster. so if they want to filibuster, they can stop anything else from going through. there's no doubt that was pressure on the president to