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Of all the federal government shutdowns that I’ve covered over three decades, the current one, now in its third week, is the weirdest by far.
Most other times, by this point the battling sides — Democrats versus Republicans, White House versus Congress — have reached some split-the-baby resolution, pressured by an American public disgusted by shuttered federal offices, lapsed or shoestring services, threatened benefits and the general show of their representatives’ political dysfunction.
But this time, the 21st shutdown in the l ast half-century , all sides have dug in. No serious negotiations are underway. Heck, the Republican House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisian