Hello and welcome to Whistle Stop, a podcast of the presidency. I'm John Dickerson.

A rare animal appeared in the Rose Garden on September 30, 1990, that some say hasn't been seen much in Washington, at least in peacetime, a president of one party flanked by the leaders of another party that controlled Congress.

They were there to promote a substantial piece of legislation. It had been produced on the forge

of the bipartisan envelope. It was a moment of coming together. But while its example may bind

those who pine for such cooperation in the model of our founders. It was this event, this seeming

act of togetherness that did cleave the Republican Party in Twain, hastened the end of a presidency,

and the decline of a cooperative era, and ushered in a new combative norm that we have with us today.

Our whistle stop today is the 30th of September 1990.

Twin Peaks was the most popular television show.

Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait the previous month and was facing the threat of military

retaliation.

But the news of the day on that overcast Sunday was the federal government.

It was on the verge of a shutdown.

The nation's newspapers told the tale on their front pages. State braces for layoffs, service cuts,

if talks fail, read the headline on the front page of the Indianapolis Star. The article read,

If Congress cannot come to terms on trimming the federal budget by midnight tonight, the law will automatically cut government spending.

By 85 billion government workers will be ordered to take days off, and citizens will find many government services dwindling.

But with the nation holding its breath, a late breaking development brought the cameras out on Sunday to the White House.

After five grinding

months of bargaining, 11 days of horse trading by meat-fed men at Andrew's Air Force Base and

late-night sessions at the Capitol, after all of that, an agreement had been reached. President

Bush stood before an array of Brooks Brothers suits containing the leadership of both parties,

...