With a government shutdown looming, Republicans and Democrats both appear to have based their political calculations on 1995, when the federal government shut down amid a standoff between then-House-speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton -- a political fight most observers agree Clinton won. Above, Gingrich was mocked on a cover of the New York Daily News in 1995.

The Daily News' Tim Clifford and Dave Eisenstadt reported on Nov. 16, 1995 that Gingrich partly credited the shutdown to Clinton's refusal to discuss spending with him and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole on a 25-hour ride aboard Air Force One to Yitzhak Rabin's funeral.