From a reader:

Jonah,
You write (cleverly, I should add), “For certain Beltway centrists, the highest principle is to prove that you are attached to no principle. Rather, your duty is to split the difference between the “ideologues.” If one side says we need a 1,000-foot bridge to span a canyon, and the other side says we don’t need a bridge at all, the centrists will fight for a bridge that goes 500 feet and no farther, then pat themselves on the back.”
If only that were true! Instead, the centrists in this fight went for the 950 foot bridge.
if Washington’s “centrists” could get us to the point where we could throw only half of something down a money pit, I’d practically consider it a win.