So the fiscal cliff negotiators are talking. Or maybe they're not.

Here's how House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, put it at her news conference Thursday.

Q:  Leader Pelosi, can you give us a concrete sense of where these negotiations stand right now?  First we're told people aren't talking.  Then we're told they are talking.  What's really going on? 

Pelosi.  Probably both. 

Q:  How is that possible?

Pelosi.  Well, maybe they're not talking enough.  But, you know, the – there's no reason why we couldn't come to the table and get this done right now.  Everybody knows what the elements are.  And so, the question is, if we are going to do it, let's do it now.  If we're not going to do it, the Republicans are just going to say, ‘never, no way, we will not touch one hair on the head of the wealthiest people in our country, not one red cent from them,’ then let us know that right now, too, so we can take the consequences of that and mitigate for that.