Eric Cantor: Thanks, Chuckie!

Sen. Chuckie Schumer did a service for the Republicans and they know it:

Republican leaders wasted little time playing up reports Tuesday that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, told other members of his party that the caucus had urged him to start calling Republican budget cut proposals “extreme” during public battle between the parties of government spending.

“Chuck Schumer did us a favor. He exposed their tactic,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, told reporters. “You heard his comment. He’s basically instructing his members to deem any spending cut unreasonable. Any spending cut. So clearly they’re not serious.”

Just hours earlier, Schumer was heard on a conference call with reporters giving what Republicans immediately dubbed “marching orders” for how to frame the debate on government funding.

The potentially embarrassing episode revealed something that happens every day in Washington — partisan maneuvering, messaging and coordination — but it is uncommon that a party can lift the curtain on the opposing side’s sausage making. With that in mind, Republicans wasted no time in calling out Schumer for telling other Democrats to call them “extreme.”

“I always use the word extreme,” Schumer told Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin Cardin and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, according to New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer, who was on the call without Schumer knowing it. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.”

To my surprise the news stations were reporting this story on their news last night. I expected Schumer's words to be buried in the mainstreat media.

Unfortunately, nobody is looking at the actual numbers that Chuckie calls "extreme". Cutting $20 billion out of a $3.65 trillion budget is far from "extreme", and the story would certainly have a lot more punch if the comment were put in context.