Most of it is done under the table but some is apparent.

"I'll support you blah blah bill, if you'll let me tack on $5 mill to this funding bill for blah blah in my home state. Voters'll love that (remember the Alaska bridge to nowhere?) and I can get re-elected."

Anyone who thinks it isn't done is highly naive. Any time there is any maneuvering, it is a power-play with shifting sand under lawmakers' feet. It may look like the Dems caved but they got something out of it. Down the line we'll be able to see what.

Or it may be that they always intended to simply hold out as long as they could in order to make some other deals (under the table). In the last analysis, they had to pass a spending bill that would not get vetoed because they do not have enough votes to override a veto. That is the power the President is wielding at the moment, that he is veto-proof.

It is not caving when there is no other viable choice. You pass a spending bill or jump off a cliff.

The rest is all spin and I wish to hell the media would quit it! The multitude of the great unwashed seem to need the media to tell them how to think.