Well, it came down to the wire, but the U.S. Senate has officially passed a bill to avert a government shutdown.

There was a heated debate among Democrats about how to proceed, and in the end, just a handful joined most Republicans to pass the stopgap bill.

On that and on other headlines, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and K. Pardt.

That is, New York Times columnist David Brooks

and Jonathan K. Part, associate editor for the Washington Post. Great to see you both.

So Jonathan, let's talk about the Democrats right now. Gee, let's talk about them.

Listen, there was a real chasm revealed in this fight over how to proceed on this funding bill.

You had Nancy Pelosi openly calling for Senate Democrats

to defy Chuck Schumer and vote against this bill,

people accusing Chuck Schumer of selling out

his own party for backing it.

Democrats who've previously said shutdowns are dangerous

and they are harmful, now saying they'd rather have a shutdown

than vote for this bill.

What's going on in the party?

Here's what's going on. And it's not so much what's happening in the Democratic Party. It's

what's happening in the Republican Party. The Republicans took control of, maintain the control

of the House. Republicans took control and gained seats in the Senate. The Republicans took

control of the White House. They crowed for months after the election

that the American people gave them a mandate to govern.

They then kicked Democrats out of the negotiations

away from the table over this continuing resolution.

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