A curious statement by Senator Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday:

Senate Minority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell discussed the debt ceiling negotiations with Bret Baier on Fox News Sunday. McConnell was in agreement with Speaker John Boehner's decision not to support a large deficit deal, yet also made a curious assertion that none of his Republican colleagues have ever claimed they will not be in support of raising the debt ceiling.

Baier, filling in for Chris Wallace, pressed McConnell on what would happen if no deal could be worked out and whether he was concerned with the consequences of what might happen if the debt ceiling is not raised. McConnell confidently responded, "nobody is talking about not raising the debt ceiling. I haven't heard that discussed by anybody." Yet Baier informed him that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, among others, have explicitly said just that. Baier even quoted Bachmann saying "don't let them fool you that the economy is going to collapse" if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Not only Bachmann opposes raising the debt limit, but Senator Rand Paul is going to filibuster any deal that includes raising the debt ceiling. This makes McConnell either clueless, or disingenuous.

Or perhaps, ostrich-like, he refuses to see the real problem he will have in bringing the GOP along in the senate on any deal on the deficit. The Republican leadership is now operating in a vacuum with a sizable segment of the caucus in the both the House and Senate dubious of a deficit deal with Obama.

That's not to say that a deal couldn't be passed. But there is going to be some serious arm twisting in order for that to happen.