Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer's (N.Y.) instructions for his colleagues to label GOP lawmakers as "extreme" is not helpful to budget negotiations, the Senate's top Republican said Tuesday. 
  
  
  
 "That's really not helpful, if we're trying to reach an agreement here," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told reporters at a press conference. 
  
 Earlier Tuesday, Schumer gave advice to a group of fellow Democrats before a conference call with reporters saying, "I always use the word extreme. ... That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week." 
  
 The remark was heard by reporters before the conference call officially began. 
  
  
  
 Lawmakers on both sides have ramped up the rhetoric against each other amid a stalemate over a proposal to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year and avoid a government shutdown after short-term funding expires April 8. 
  
  
  
 Democrats and Republicans have accused each other of negotiating in bad faith and assigning blame on one another should the government shut down. ||||| iStockphoto/Wikipedia/Salon 
  
 Senator Chuck Schumer, loudmouthed New York Democrat and incorrigible publicity hound, accidentally revealed his super-top-secret talking points to a bunch of reporters while he was... on a conference call with a bunch of reporters. Before the call was scheduled to begin, Schumer was instructing his fellow senators on what to say to the press, which I'm sure his fellow senators really appreciated, because they totally have no idea how to competently deliver simple talking points to reporters: 
  
 After thanking his colleagues — Barbara Boxer of California, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — for doing the budget bidding for the Senate Democrats, who are facing off against the House Republicans over how spending for the rest of the fiscal year, Mr. Schumer told them to portray John Boehner of Ohio, the Speaker of the House, as painted into a box by the Tea Party, and to decry the spending cuts that he wants as extreme. “I always use the word extreme,” Mr. Schumer said, “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.” 
  
 Then everyone realized people were listening and went quiet, out of embarrassment, until the call officially "began," at which point the senators dutifully delivered their talking points. 
  
 This talking point about Boehner being caged in by "extreme" elements in his party is at least a plausible interpretation of observable reality -- in other words it's perfectly legitimate spin -- so I wouldn't expect too much fallout from this. (Until someone from a Breitbart site or The Daily Caller or some even stupider outlet decides this is proof of Soros-funded High Treason against the Constitution, anyway.) It's funny to hear Schumer explicitly say that the caucus told him to use that one particular word, and then to hear a bunch of adult U.S. senators use that word. It should please conservatives to learn, again, that Democrats are so incompetent at basic political messaging. ||||| The funniest part of this is that even now, after more than two years of heavy breathing from liberal media about how extremely extremist those extreme tea partiers are, the Democratic brain trust still needs a heads up on how properly to smear budget-cutting conservatives. I always figured they just committed a bunch of pejoratives to memory during their orientation as members of Congress for use forevermore: “Extremist,” “radical,” “fringe,” “dangerous,” “heartless,” and of course old reliable, “out of touch.” 
  
 At least we know now, though, why Schumer’s considered a likely eventual successor to Reid as majority leader. Evidently, he’s “the smart one.” 
  
 Um, Senators, ever heard of the mute button? Moments before a conference call with reporters was scheduled to get underway on Tuesday morning, apparently unaware that many of the reporters were already on the line, Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, began to instruct fellow senators on how to talk to reporters about the contentious budget process. After thanking his colleagues — Barbara Boxer of California, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — for doing the budget bidding for the Senate Democrats, who are facing off against the House Republicans over how spending for the rest of the fiscal year, Mr. Schumer told them to portray John Boehner of Ohio, the Speaker of the House, as painted into a box by the Tea Party, and to decry the spending cuts that he wants as extreme. “I always use the word extreme,” Mr. Schumer said, “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.” 
  
 Actually, I was wrong about this being the funniest part. The funniest part, as you’ll see if you follow the link up top, is that they then proceeded to mindlessly repeat the “extremism” talking point as if no one had heard what Schumer had said — even though everyone clearly had. Ah well. If they were good at thinking on the fly, they’d have real jobs. Speaking of which, the lamer-than-lame spin from Schumer’s spokesman afterwards: “There’s nothing wrong with reporters overhearing him calling the House Republicans’ extreme because that’s what it is.” Even the spokesman can’t resist robotically repeating Pee Wee’s secret word of the day. Good lord, it’s enough to make one long for the creative boorishness of Anthony Weiner. 
  
 Exit question via Ace: If they’re hammering the “extremism” message this hard, they must really be digging in for a shutdown, huh? 
  
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A:
Chuck Schumer's mini-gaffe on a conference call today is still bouncing around the political blogs. It began when Schumer—unaware reporters were on the line—gave talking points to Democrats about how to characterize Republicans in the budget fight: “I always use the word extreme,” he said, as quoted by the New York Times. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.” He soon went silent, apparently realizing reporters were listening, and the real call started: "We are urging Mr. Boehner to abandon the extreme right wing," said Barbara Boxer, on message. Some reaction: Mitch McConnell: "That's really not helpful, if we're trying to reach an agreement here," he said, as per the Hill. Schumer's spokesman: "There's nothing wrong with reporters overhearing him calling the House Republicans' extreme because that's what it is. He had just given a speech on the Senate floor saying the same thing. The sooner Speaker Boehner abandons the Tea Party's extreme demands, the sooner there can be a bipartisan deal on the budget." Allahpundit, Hot Air: "Even now, after more than two years of heavy breathing from liberal media about how extremely extremist those extreme tea partiers are, the Democratic brain trust still needs a heads up on how properly to smear budget-cutting conservatives." Click to read one view that this is being overblown and that Democrats won't suffer much fallout.