“As McConnell said yesterday, we want to get this done but needed 
a dance
partner. It looks like we got one with Biden.”

— An unnamed Republican Senate aide

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden engaged
in furious overnight negotiations, from midnight to 6:30 a.m. and made major
progress in avoiding the fiscal cliff, according to Politico.

Citing sources “familiar with the discussion,” Politico reported that McConnell
and Biden, who served in the Senate together for 23 years, may have brought the
cliff talks back from the brink.

The deal calls for higher tax rates on income above $450,000, but no
agreement yet on “turning off” the sequester cuts that would hit most federal
departments hard, particularly the Pentagon, starting Jan. 2.