Ever been on the phone with somebody that drones on and on and on, making no real sense, nor taking the time to hear or understand you?

I have, so I usually wait for them to stop to catch a breath and then I quickly say I have something I need to get to, and it can’t wait.

I do this for my own sanity, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has experienced that.

Delaware Senator Tom Carper (D) says that’s pretty much what happened recently, when administration officials, including White House economic adviser Gary Cohn recently attempted to have a discussion on tax reform with Senate Democrats.

Apparently, it was going really well, then President Trump took time from his activities in Asia to call in.

Yeah. I can just about tell how that call went.

Carper went on to tell what went down:

“Nice of him to do that,” Carper said, recounting the conversation. “Fifteen minutes later, the president’s still talking. And I said to Gary … why don’t you do this, why don’t you take the phone, your cellphone back and just say: ‘Mr. President you’re brilliant. But we’re losing contact and I think we’re going to lose you now, so goodbye.’ And that’s what he did, and he hung up. And then we went back to having the conversation that we needed to.”

The ’ol, “We must have a bad connection. I’ll call you back later” ploy. Nice.

Asked directly if Cohn faked the bad connection to get the president off the phone, Carper responded, “I don’t want to throw him under the bus, but yes … he was interested in the greater good.”

“The greater good” being – let the grownups talk.

Of course, the White House disputes Carper’s version of events. They dispute everything, though, and then within a couple of days, somebody else comes out and confirms it (usually Trump, in a tweet).

According to deputy press secretary Raj Shah, Cohn spoke with Trump off-speaker for several minutes before hanging up.

So far, they haven’t hit that sweet spot with the tax plan to get any Democrats onboard, but Carper said the conversation was still productive.

Democratic Sen. Tom Carper says White House economic adviser Gary Cohn faked a bad connection to get President Trump off the phone so they could have a conversation on tax reform without him https://t.co/qcUnSEsysl

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 22, 2017