Paraphrase of the day (fiscal cliff edition)

This might read "quote of the day" but I just returned the book from which I could have taken the verbatim. D.W. Brogan, referring to the French Third Republic, described it as having so many brakes that it slid toward immobility (the actual sentence is rather more elaborate but that's the gist). I hadn't been following the fiscal cliff drama very closely but the way in which it was "resolved" and the prospects for further showdowns (cf. the summer '11 debt ceiling 'crisis') after the new Congress is seated -- estimates of which admittedly vary depending on the analyst -- made Brogan's remark jump out when I ran across it.