Cliché corner   

"Gingrich felt he had utterly misread the entire budget endgame. The deal was not going to happen." ( Washington Post )

"In November, many observers..thought the fiscal endgame would pit the GOP's politics of balanced budgets against the Democrats' politics of 'Medi-
scare.' " ( New York Times )

"For all the flak that [Sen. Robert Dole] was catching from conservatives for trying to end the shutdown, he was clearly in his element, the master of the endgame." ( Time )

"The budget game of chicken has given way to a far more subtle battle of chess. The opponents can see the shape of the endgame but dare not yet set it in motion because the cost of a false move could be prohibitively high." ( Financial Times )

"Both sides said they appeared to be reaching the endgame of the impasse over the Republican goal of a seven-year [balanced] budget plan..." ( USA Today )