Your news today is that Congress will not tackle the question of extending the Bush tax cuts until after the elections, as Democrats are pushing that off to a Lame Duck session.

The announcement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office came after a two hour closed door meeting of Senate Democrats, where Senators could not agree on the best course forward.

That seemed very obvious when Democrats emerged, giving all kinds of non-answers to reporters about what would be next on the schedule.

"Talk to the Leader, I'm not the Leader," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who shot reporters a look that you might get from your mother when you are stepping on her very last nerve.

Most Democrats refused to give any details from inside the Senators-only meeting, leaving us grasping for any indication of what might have been happening.

"Blink your eyes twice if there is going to be a vote next week," one reporter said to a smiling Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who kept his eyes open wide.

The problem for Democrats was simple - they couldn't agree on what to do.  And Republicans aren't going to help them by agreeing to a compromise right now.

"We cannot pass what needs to be passed," said Reid's top lieutenant, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL).

The inability to act again raises the chance that nothing may get done on this subject this year, which would result in tax increases for all working Americans at the start of next year.

Democrats had initially welcomed the idea of a pre-election fight, but the daily drumbeat of bad poll numbers and nightmarish election predictions seemed to weigh on lawmakers over the last week.

But waiting until after the elections does not make it any easier for Democrats to find a solution, especially when there are as many as five Senate seats that could immediately switch after election day.

Those five Senate special elections are in Colorado, Illinois, Delaware, West Virginia and New York.  Even if the GOP wins only two of those five, that means Democrats will have two fewer votes on the tax issue.

Congress will be back next week, trying to hash out a stop gap budget to keep the government up and running when the new fiscal year begins on October 1.

The Lame Duck is on the way.

And so are the elections.