Appropriations and baseball are back

Appropriations and baseball are back-politico: Baseball’s back this week and with it, yes, appropriations. You laugh, but the two share a lot: the long grueling season, late summer nights, beaucoup numbers, dreams of past glory come October. And as the first spending bills roll out, no dream’s bigger than repeating that championship pennant run of 1996. Just as today, 1996 followed on a disastrous government shutdown. And Republicans in Congress worked then with a Democratic White House to make amends by passing before Oct. 1 all of the annual bills required to keep agencies operating for the next 12 months.