In shutdown deal, bipartisan legislating trumped party unity

The bipartisan compromise to end the recent federal shutdown struck by eight Senate Democrats should be celebrated for reasons that go beyond the obvious ones – reopening the government, restoring food stamps to 45 million poor and working-class households that rely on them, avoiding chaos in the nation’s air traffic system, unwinding layoffs and providing backpay to more than one million federal employees.

Just as important, the deal broke the stranglehold that “party unity” has over leaders, members and media at the Capitol, one that has turned Congress into a failed and dysfunctional institution unable and unwilling to address or resolve the most pressing problems facing the nation.

Rather than being excoriated as “traitors” to their party, the senators ought to be hailed for the cour