White House on Senate trade flap: 'Procedural snafu'

David Jackson | USA TODAY

The White House words of the day: "Procedural snafu."

Spokesman Josh Earnest repeatedly used that phrase Tuesday to describe the decision by Senate Democrats to block a vote on trade promotion authority, a major step towards a major free trade deal with Asian countries.

Expressing confidence that lawmakers would eventually favor the proposal, Earnest said at one point that "it is not unprecedented -- to say the least -- for the United States Senate to encounter procedural snafus."

The words "snafu" or "snafus" came up more than a dozen times during a White House news briefing.

The word "snafu," by the way, is military slang for the saying "situation normal, all fouled up" (at least that's the sanitized version).