Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Thursday accused Democrats of “choreographing” a government shutdown as a distraction from President Obama’s lack of leadership.

“The president needs a distraction, and this is a choreographed distraction to try to shift the blame from a president who has been AWOL from leadership and has very little political courage," the conservative senator charged.

DeMint, a favorite of the Tea Party movement, added that Democrats are trying to place blame on the Tea Party for the specter of a government shutdown when they themselves are at fault.

“They are coached to call us extreme and blame it on the Tea Party,” said DeMint.  “Americans are smarter than that.”

The current resolution funding the government expires on Friday. Both sides continue negotiations. 

"I am not really optimistic," said Reid at about 7:45 p.m. on the Senate floor. "I hope things are better when we get to the White House. "

Reid was on his way to an 8 p.m. meeting with President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) to continue to try to craft a compromise that would fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 and avert a shutdown when the current funding measure expires Friday night

"We hope we are able to have some good fortune at the negotiation and that work our way through those issues,” said Reid.

Reid said social riders demanded by Republicans were still holding-up negotiations.

"This is not a debate between Democrats and Republicans," said Red. "Its a debate between Republicans and Republicans.  They cannot determine how many social issues they want. The funding issues are pretty well taken care of." 

Reid added that the last 24-hours have "not been kind to the American people" and concluded that Republicans’ unwillingness to budge on social riders like funding for groups that provide abortions was  "really bad for the American people."

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he is worried that if the government shuts down, the husband of wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Mark Kelly, will be unable to lead the space shuttle mission he is scheduled to command later this month.

“What about Gabby Gifford’s husband, who is supposed to go on a NASA mission?” asked Nelson. “Are they going to continue that preparation? Are they going to lay off the astronaut crew because they are not essential?”

“Is Captain Mark Kelly ... going to be able to command that mission to take the final components up to low orbit to connect those final components to the international space station?” asked Nelson.

Giffords was gravely wounded by a gunman in January. Her husband is scheduled to lead a NASA mission launching April 29.

In January 1986, Nelson spent six days orbiting Earth as a payload specialist aboard Space Shuttle Columbia and has become a leading advocate for NASA in Congress. 

“Ladies and gentleman, we are not even playing with fire, we are playing with super heated fire,”  concluded Nelson.

The House Rules Committee has postponed Thursday's planned markup of a rule for H.R. 3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act."

The committee has not announced when it might take up the bill. Approval of a rule Thursday was expected to lead to a vote as early as next week, but that schedule has likely been overtaken by the ongoing budget negotiations.

“The question we have to ask ourselves is: Why does Barack Obama ... want a shutdown?” Sen. Mike Lee said.

By a 255-172 vote, the House approved a measure Thursday that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The bill, the Energy Tax Prevention Act (H.R. 910), was supported by 19 Democrats.

For Republicans, the bill is a way to protest the 2007 Supreme Court decision allowing the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide and other non-toxic emissions. The GOP has said this allows the EPA to impose policy decisions through regulation that the Obama administration cannot pass legislatively.

The measure was approved in a 247-181 vote, but looks to be going nowhere in the Senate. 

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was the first senator to come to the floor Thursday and recommend the upper chamber pass a House GOP bill that would fund the government for another week.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Thursday was given the stiff-arm by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) while asking about the chances of the House passing a clean continuing resolution.

Hoyer asked Rogers during debate on the GOP's one-week spending bill, H.R. 1363, whether the Republicans might accept a clean spending extension, without any of the policy riders in the Republican bill. 

Rogers replied: "What the gentleman is asking [is] if we will continue the status quo. We do not and can not accept the status quo."

When Hoyer asked to clarify his request, he found he was out of time, and asked if he could borrow time from Rogers to further clarify. Rogers ignored Hoyer's request completely, and introduced the next Republican speaker.

"Is that a no, Madame Speaker?" Hoyer asked the presiding officer, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who chuckled in response.