Shutting down the government for a few weeks probably complicated some things. Can always call non-stop hearings and bring people in to talk instead of work, as well.

What, you think nobody plays hardball in DC?

For the former, we've heard that nobody important stopped working during the "shutdown". The latter was entirely a hypothetical ... before the disaster. After, I don't recall anyone truly important being detained in hearings for long (more than a day? with presumably 1-2 days of prep time at most before?), and the Administration has had no compunctions about not sending people to Congressional hearings if they don't want to.

"What, you think nobody plays hardball in DC?"

National level Republicans as of late have been playing badminton at best.

That you cannot cite "some effective mechanisms" after making such a broad claim suggests to me that you're approaching this discussion as a political, not a technological, one.

Shutting down the government because you don't get your way isn't hardball? I suspect if we flipped some D and R labels around, like say this was President Romney's healthcare plan, you'd have a completely different opinion about every detail, up to and including the severity of shutting down the government to try and defund something.

Not these faux "shutdowns".

Especially the latest one, where the Park Service went to great efforts, employing a lot more armed Rangers to keep people out of anything they could claim as their turf, including things open 24x7 without corresponding 24x7 coverage, like the WWII Memorial. But not, curiously, a rally for immigration "reform".

Look, I spent a dozen years "inside the Beltway", I know political theater when I see it. It's just that, not "hardball". Heck, they even made the furloughed employees whole, as they have in times past.