An AP story by Ben Feller describes Barack Obama presiding over yesterday’s White House fiscal summit as a jovial “facilitator in chief.” The president made fun of someone’s purple scarf, joked about his helicopter, and teased Eric Cantor about being obstinate.

And then, you hear tires screech:

Yet, for all the fun and games, Obama took a pass when Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, asked him to encourage House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to include Republicans in the decision making.

“I’m not in Congress, so I don’t want to interject myself too much into congressional politics,” the former Illinois senator said. Then, not passing up a moment to make his pitch, he said: “But I do want to make this point, and I think it’s important-on the one hand, the majority has to be inclusive. On the other hand, the minority has to be constructive.”

So much for that all-important goal of bipartisanship.