Naturally:

The House late Thursday gave final approval to a temporary extension of the George W. Bush-era tax rates, delivering a significant but politically bruising victory to President Obama.

The $858 billion legislation now heads to the president’s desk for his signature. It extends the Bush tax cuts across the board for two years, slashes the employee payroll tax by 2 percent for one year, renews the estate tax and extends unemployment insurance benefits for 13 months.

The vote was 277-148, and the bill gained a majority of both Democrats and Republicans despite complaints from each party’s political base. The legislation deepened divisions in the Democratic ranks and burst open festering tensions between House Democrats and the White House.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had herded her divided caucus through the contentious process, said afterward she was pleased with the outcome despite her reservations about the bill.

Asked whether the emotional tax-cut vote had damaged the morale of the Democrats as the 111th Congress evolves into the 112th, Pelosi downplayed any lingering rancor.

[…]

In all, 112 Democrats and 36 Republicans voted against the deal, including conservative stalwarts Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Steve King (R-Iowa) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Citing jobless benefits not paid for and an extension of the tax cuts set to expire in two years, during the next political season, those members felt they could get a better deal out of President Obama after they take power in little under three weeks.

But Cantor and Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made a dogged effort to rally support for the negotiated package that would ensure “certainty” in the near future.

Here’s what’s certain: the President has said in 2012 he will once again push tax hikes for “the rich” — so what the GOP has “won” here is a temporary extension of the current rates, with a tax hike on certain estates and a bunch of unfunded new spending, along with the right to fight this battle again come election time, with the Democrats adjusting their focus-grouped message to concentrate on tax rates going up for “millionaires.”

That is, in the wake of an historic election in which the people overwhelming signaled their desire for fiscal responsibility, they compromised on a new spending bill with an unpopular President and a Democrat Congress with an approval rate of 13%.

Had they waited three weeks and called the President’s bluff, they would have gotten “permanent” tax rates and a defeat of the death tax — or else forced the Senate Democrats and / or the President to raise taxes on everyone in the midst of near 10% unemployment. Instead, they turned a socialist ideologue into a “tax cutting,” compromising “pragmatist” passing bi-partisan legislation with solid Senate and House support.

Sorry. The only “certainties” we can count on are the willingness of the GOP to sacrifice its principles for the “best deal” Democrats deign to let them have, and the willingness of GOP cheerleaders to pretend they scored some sort of political victory as a result.

(h/t Geoff)