Democrats look to save face in shutdown battle

Senate Democrats say privately that they will not allow the government to shut down on Saturday, despite growing pressure from activists and liberal lawmakers who want them to kill a GOP-crafted six-month stopgap spending bill.

Senate Democratic sources say Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is giving plenty of room to centrists in his caucus to vote for the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) if doing so is the only way to avoid a government shutdown at week’s end.

And one Democratic senator familiar with the internal deliberations said Senate Democrats will ultimately vote to keep the government open, despite the rumblings of liberals within their caucus who are heaping scorn on the House-passed funding bill.

Still, the private assurances don’t rule out the possibility that something unexpected could happen to change the political calculus.