"If I have the choice between extending the tax cut for a year and energizing our economy  and having an issue to run on, I'd rather energize the economy," Axelrod said in an exclusive interview with Fox News. "I think that it's better for the country, it's better for the president. Frankly it's better for the Congress even if they don't see it."

In the next breath, however, Axelrod flatly charged the latest move by House Republicans to block a Senate compromise extending the tax cut for two months is an effort by the GOP to choke off any economic recovery and damage Obama's already difficult re-election prospects.

"You have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow -- think screwing up the economy, throwing a wrench in the works is a good political strategy for them," Axelrod told Fox News. "Somehow if they can slow the recovery down, if they can cost a half million or delay a half million jobs, that that will hurt the president."