Bravado and Restraint Characterize Debt Deal Debate

Jawboning.

Arm twisting.

It's all happening inside the Capitol Thursday afternoon as the House charges toward a vote on House Speaker John Boehner's plan to raise the nation's debt limit.

Some members are getting fired up about getting the package passed. "Let's go knock the sh-t out of them," one Republican lawmaker told his colleagues at a closed door conference meeting Thursday morning.

That wasn't the first posterior-themed exhortation to fellow Republicans. Earlier this week Speaker Boehner, R-Ohio, ordered wavering colleagues to "get your ass in line" behind his debt limit plan.

It seems to be working. Around two dozen GOP freshmen took to the East Front of the Capitol to say they would support the plan, even though it isn't their first choice.

"Is this as big as we wanted to go?" asked Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wisc., "Heck no. We wanted to go bigger. We ran on going bigger, but this is the only proposal on the table that accomplishes what we need to do."

However, Republican leaders are still sounding cautious about the measure's prospects for success. When asked by Fox News if he had the votes to pass the extension, Boehner deferred to his chief vote counter, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

"We're moving in the right direction," McCarthy said, but stopped short of saying that his party had the requisite 216 votes in hand.