back with us, eli stokols, who has agreed to stick around, and we welcome back to the broadcast darlene superville, white house reporter for associated press. darlene, they go down to the white house. was this, this kicking the can down the road, which is really a washington export to the rest of the world, was this a victory for the dems? just thinking through this, because as you get close to christmas, you don't want to stand between capitol hill and national airport as christmas approaches. you'll get killed by the cars going out to the airport. does this force the republicans' hand to maybe make a deal they don't want to make? >> that's probably what democrats are hoping for. this happens all the time when we get around to the end of the year and congress is faced with budget dilemmas. they kick the can down the road for a week or two at a time and we come back and do it all over again. >> eli, "washington post" is