NBC's Chuck Todd tried and failed to pin down Senator-elect Pat Toomey on whether he'll vote to raise the nation's debt limit, and if not, set the stage for a government shutdown. Here's liberal TPM on Toomey's "squirming" on the question:

"When you were a member of Congress you had to deal with this during your six years. Can you -- do you feel as if you've got a way to vote against this and still make sure the government doesn't shut down?" Pat Toomey (R-PA) was asked on MSNBC.

Toomey demurred, "Let's see the context that we're that in at the time the vote comes. I think we've got to get very serious about getting this budget under control. We've got to do it in a context of expanding growth. We can not continue running one-and-a-half trillion deficits....We can't be defaulting on existing debt either. It's time we got serious about this. We have to look at all these pieces when we approach this question."

When pressed, he still wouldn't take a position.

"I want to see where we are when the vote comes and what the context is and what we've been able to -- what kind of progress we've made on the budget. Let's look at where we are then."