I still don't think this will end before October 17.

[apnu]

8. I won't.

Even if it does, it still won't.

Say a CR is passed this afternoon. Everybody will sigh, take a drink of water and start fighting about the debt ceiling, whose doomsday clock strikes on the 17th. Shutdown or not, that's the main event. All this we're seeing now is just the opening act nobody cares about.

This will continue so long as there's an element in the Republican party that wants both the shutdown and a default and the rest of the party who's too weak willed to stand up to them.

All of this has nothing to do with us liberals and Democrats. Its all about the Republican party and their internal struggle.

The same is true of the South in the 1850s, look where that led us.