Jimmy Carter, government shutdown king

Well, actually the president, not the king, but you know what I mean.

Last week, the Associated Press had a piece about the looming government shutdown. As part of that, it had a graphic of previous shutdowns, by president. This:

Jumps off the page.

Yes, I've known long before this that Carter had a largely ineffectual presidency, and per Stu Eizenstat's bio of Carter's White House years, about just how much of it was self-inflicted.

Yeah, they were all relatively short, in today's terms, but FIVE of them? And scattered in three of his four full years of office? And all with Dems in charge of both houses of Congress?

Yes, part of it was that Democratic political barons didn't like a new, post-Watergate era, and a president who, early on, tried to live up to that part of his campaign promises. (Note that three of the shutdowns were in 1977.)

But, Carter's intransigence and micromanaging were also factors. So, too, was the way in which, when he would change sides, he'd do so suddenly and leave allies in the lurch.