Well, government is up and running again. I’m not sure what to say about that colossal waste of time, energy, and money. Is there any silver lining? I can’t see one. Does this mark the end of the Republican party?

UPDATE: From Ross Douthat:

But with tonight’s vote done and the government open once again, I want to return to the theme of my Sunday column, and stress once more the essential absurdity of the specific populist gambit we’ve just witnessed unfold, drag on, and now finally collapse. However you slice and dice the history, the strategery, and the underlying issues, the decision to live with a government shutdown for an extended period of time — inflicting modest-but-real harm on the economy, needlessly disrupting the lives and paychecks of many thousands of hardworking people, and further tarnishing the Republican Party’s already not-exactly-shiny image — in pursuit of obviously, obviouslyunattainable goals was not a normal political blunder by a normally-functioning political party. It was an irresponsible, dysfunctional and deeply pointless act, carried out by a party that on the evidence of the last few weeks shouldn’t be trusted with the management of a banana stand, let alone the House of Representatives.

Absurd. Irresponsible. Dysfunctional. Deeply Pointless. Harm. Disrupting.

It didn’t just tarnish the Republican Party. It tarnished our entire government.