Big News Out of Senate Democrats Policy Luncheon: 'We Chose Secret Santas

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Nine days away from the bipartisan "supercommittee" deadline to find at least $1.2 trillion in debt savings and fulfill the final chapters of the summer's ugly debt ceiling saga and the Washington Post reports that the big news coming out of today's meeting among Senate Democrats was the delving out of "Secret Santa" assignments. No word if they had enough time to discuss decorations for a holiday party.

"The 'supercommittee' efforts to find at least $1.2 trillion in debt savings, the end-of-year crush to fund federal agencies, President Obama’s handling of trade policy with China — any of those topics could have dominated Tuesday’s weekly policy luncheon of Senate Democrats.

What was the big news coming out of the caucus for some senators? 'We chose Secret Santas,' Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said, pulling a folded piece of white paper from his inside coat pocket."

The Post notes that the Secret Santa agenda is led by Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations author, and Minnesota Senator, Al Franken.

As is custom with the common holiday party game often played out in elementary school classrooms, Senators will give a gift next month to the Senator whose name they drew from a hat Tuesday. Senate Republican aids tell the Post that their caucus does not engage in a "Secret Santa," and is currently angered with Democrats on the debt supercommitte who have yet to formally respond to a GOP deficit proposal offered last week. The proposal was reportedly not discussed for more than a couple minutes in Tuesday's meeting.