Though the title of today’s WSJ article “Senate Democrats Press New Front: Republicans Oppose Move to Reopen Sequester Cuts” seems to push the media narrative of the obdurate Republicans who “oppose” all things “new,” the real story is the counterproductive moving of the goalposts by emboldened Democrats.

While the title of WSJ piece gives the impression that Senate Democrats are proactively “pressing” forward and the Republicans are pushing back, the opposite is true. Due to recent polling showing Republicans losing the optics battle in the budget war, emboldened Democrats have altered their demands once again. The result: thanks to Democrat leadership, we’re even farther from a solution.

Unlike the title, the meat of Hook's article does emphasize the degree to which the Democrats’ strategy shift has damaged negotiations:

Senate leaders attempting to avoid a U.S. debt default remained at loggerheads Sunday and escalated the standoff by reopening the contentious issue of automatic spending cuts, damping hopes that some of Congress's most canny negotiators would break the impasse.

This “contentious issue” Hook argues is flustering the Republican leadership:

Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), oppose retreating from those cuts. That set up a clash that seemed almost as intense as the one that caused budget talks between House Republicans and President Barack Obama to collapse Friday.

Though the Democrats knew this would be the response to their new sequester demands, they’re “aggressively” pushing the agenda in the budget talks of the last few days:

The talks also showed Senate Democrats moving aggressively to press their top priorities in a pact that would be presented to the Republican-controlled House at a moment when voting it down could put the nation closer to potential default.

One party "aggressively" pushing us from one intense “clash” to another. That’s what happens when a party feels confident they have the media to package their message for them. Suggestion for a new title to the piece: “Emboldened Democrats Force Republicans into a Corner—and Nation Closer to Default.”