Appearing on CNN’s Starting Point Wednesday morning, Florida Congressman Allen West was skeptical about the payroll tax compromise reached in Congress and told Soledad O’Brien he currently wouldn’t support the plan. “Not if we’re going to do it on the backs of American homeowners, I won’t support that,” West explained. “It’s about time that we get pretty genuine with the American people and not give them political gimmicks. Let’s start doing the things that look out for our future, not a short term economic band aid.”

Congress reached a tentative agreement to extend three economic policies set to expire at the end of the month, plus the payroll tax credit through the end of the year, many conservatives were not happy, least of all, Fox and Friends anchor Gretchen Carlson, who flew into a rage over the deal. “This is what Americans should be upset in regards to politicians folks!” Carlson fumed. “This is pure political theater! No one on either side of the equation, even independents do not want to be the ones that the president can point the finger at and say you raised taxes on middle class before the election. This is total politics and it’s driving me crazy!”

This afternoon, President Obama delivered remarks in the White House briefing room on the last-minute passage of the payroll tax cut extension. He celebrated the passage of the compromise, crediting the average Americans who participated in a social media push to get it done, and urged Congress to pass a full year extension when they return. Toward the end, though, the President ran afoul of a rule that GOP candidate Newt Gingrich spoke about earlier this week, that “no federal official at any level is currently allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas.’”

The fallout from the House GOP’s  (including Tea Party members) cave-in on the payroll tax cut extension has been heavier than a dumpster full of wet tea bags. Tea Party supporters are furious that not a single member had the stones to object its passage by unanimous consent. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) tried to save a little face by telling CNN’s T.J. Holmes that he would totally have stopped the measure, if only he could have gotten there in time! Upon follow up, though, not so much.

House Speaker John Boehner announced Thursday that a compromise had been reached with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to extend the payroll tax cut. “Senator Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators,” Bohener said in a statement of the agreement made with Reid.

Will Christmas come early for Congress and a miraculous deal on the payroll tax cut extension be reached? According to CNN, House Republicans will hold a conference call at 5pm “amid indications of a possible deal to extend the payroll tax cut before it expires on January 1,” according to insiders familiar with the negotiations.

President Obama turned up the heat on House Speaker John Boehner in the battle over extending the payroll tax cut Thursday afternoon, delivering yet another set of remarks aimed at shaming the House into passing a compromise deal that the Senate has already overwhelmingly approved. This time, the President used the fruits of the #40Dollars social media campaign to bombard the House GOP with the tales of sacrifice that Americans have shared over the loss of $40 in their paychecks.

Even George W. Bush’s top strategist Karl Rove thinks House Republicans overreached in reneging on the payroll tax cut deal. His advice: having lost the politics, Republicans should wait until (or to see if?) President Obama flies off to Hawaii on vacation, bash him and congressional Democrats for abdicating their duties, and then … pass the same Senate payroll tax cut compromise they could have passed on Tuesday.

Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, who famously adjourned the House of Representatives on Wednesday as Rep. Steny Hoyer shouted over the Congressmen walking out, was a guest on Fox and Friends Thursday morning and defended his actions, while calling for all elected officials to return to Washington and get a vote done on the payroll tax cut.

On Tuesday night’s Special Report with Bret Baier, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer conceded that President Obama had the upper hand in the payroll tax cut extension political battle. “The Republicans have been entirely outplayed,” Krauthammer admitted.

After a string of qualified “successes” in the game of legislative chicken, congressional Republicans may have finally met their Dead Man’s Curve. With time running out on the payroll tax cut extension that will affect 160 million Americans, Republicans in the House rejected a bipartisan Senate compromise to extend the payroll tax cut for two months in transparently cynical fashion. Now, the conservative Wall Street Journal is calling their strategy a “fiasco,” and questioning the GOP’s chances at taking back the Senate in 2012.

Goldie Taylor and S.E. Cupp mixed it up over the payroll tax cut on Martin Bashir‘s show Tuesday. “Is poppycock one word or two?” Taylor snarked. “What $1,000 dollars would do for working class Americans is pay for rent, pay for groceries, keep the damn lights on! And I’m sick and damn tired of the talking points that get pushed out on this thing.”

In a surprise appearance at Tuesday afternoon’s White House briefing, President Obama called on House Republicans, and specifically, Speaker of the House John Boehner, to stop playing games with the payroll tax cut extension. The President slammed one House Republican who called the tax cut deal “high stakes poker,” and demanded an end to “brinkmanship.”

In an implicit jab to President Obama, who returned a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill back to the UK in 2009 while Oval Office was undergoing remodeling, Speaker of the House John Boehner is bringing the statue back to Congress.

President Obama addressed the White House press corps earlier today and calmly called out what he saw as the GOP’s hypocritical stance on extension of payroll tax breaks set to expire at the end of the year. In a classic Obama rhetorical flourish, the president acknowledged that his political foes may opposed raising any taxes before asking why there’s a catch “when it comes to middle class families?” In terms of political gamesmanship, the White House aggressive position on payroll tax breaks has put the GOP back on their heels on an issue near and dear to their core belief system.