Obama, Boehner Hold White House Face-to-Face

Barack Obama and John Boehner rolled up their sleeves and personally dove into fiscal cliff talks today, meeting face-to-face at the White House for the first time in 23 days, Politico reports. Both sides issued identical statements on the meeting, saying, "We're not reading out details of the conversation, but the lines of communication remain open." Before the meeting, sources indicated that no progress had been made this weekend.

The Washington Post also points out that this is the first time Obama and Boehner have met mano-a-mano, without any other congressional leaders present, since their grand bargain attempts in July 2011. That's not to suggest that other leaders are out of the picture; Obama met with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on Friday, an aide tells the Hill. (More Barack Obama stories.)