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The government shutdown is now entering its second week. Is the US political situation that produced it getting better 鈥� or worse?

Well, it鈥檚 better in the sense that both sides have had a week to look tough. House Speaker John Boehner has shown tea party conservatives that he鈥檒l stick with them past the shutdown cliff, despite pressure to relent from establishment Republicans. President Obama has demonstrated to Democrats that he鈥檒l fight hard to protect a health reform law that reflects the party鈥檚 longtime priorities.

It鈥檚 Negotiation 101: posture at the outset to establish your position. Then begin a search for solutions from a position of strength.

But that doesn鈥檛 seem to be happening in this case. Both sides are continuing to espouse positions the other says it can鈥檛 tolerate. Rhetoric is becoming personal and vindictive, and the fight seems to be escalating into a larger showdown that鈥檚 about the fighting as much as it is about policies.

So in that sense, things are getting worse. Right now there seems no obvious way out. It鈥檚 a classic prisoners鈥� dilemma, writes veteran Washington hand Stan Collender. While all the parties to the fight may benefit from working together, working together has become so difficult that the worst of all possible outcomes, a longer and more destructive shutdown, may be the result.

鈥淚 see the shutdown lasting at least another week ... and two or three more weeks after that are becoming increasingly likely. I鈥檓 also raising the likelihood of the debt ceiling not being raised by October 17 鈥� the date Treasury says it will be needed 鈥� to 1 in 3 instead of my previous estimate of 1 in 4,鈥� writes Mr. Collender, a senior executive at Qorvis Communications, on Monday on his 鈥淐apital Gains and Games鈥� blog.

Here鈥檚 how the situation stands: On Sunday, Speaker Boehner reiterated that he won鈥檛 bring to the floor a clean government funding bill 鈥� one shorn of provisions defunding, delaying, or otherwise modifying "Obamacare." He said he won鈥檛 attempt to raise the debt ceiling without Democratic concessions, either.

鈥淭he fact is, this fight was going to come one way or another,鈥� Boehner said on ABC News's 鈥淭his Week."

Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew, in Sunday show appearances, replied that House Republicans have created a 鈥渞idiculous choice鈥� in which getting rid of the Affordable Care Act is the price of opening the government or avoiding a US debt default.

The GOP needs 鈥渢o open the government," Secretary Lew said on 鈥淔ox News Sunday." "They need to fund our ability to pay our bills. And then we鈥檙e open to negotiation.鈥�

The current Washington political situation is akin to the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, in the view of a top House Republican quoted by right-leaning Washington Examiner political writer Byron York in a Sunday column.

At Gettysburg, a Confederate unit out looking for supplies stumbled into Union cavalry. Suddenly, they were caught in a fight they had not intended on terrain they had not picked.

鈥淓verybody just kept feeding troops into it. That鈥檚 basically what鈥檚 happening now in a political sense. This isn鈥檛 exactly the fight I think Republicans wanted to have, certainly that the leadership wanted to have, but it鈥檚 the fight that鈥檚 here,鈥� this member of Congress told Mr. York.

Does Boehner see any path out of this situation?

It鈥檚 possible he does, according to another well-connected conservative journalist, Robert Costa of the National Review.

Don鈥檛 read too much into the 鈥渇ight-to-the-death posturing鈥� of the most adamant Republican House members, Mr. Costa wrote in a Washington Post opinion column last week.

Look instead to the smaller clues of Boehner鈥檚 behind-the-scenes talks with House members about a grand package deal that would raise the debt ceiling in return for Democratic concessions on tax and entitlement reform.

Those talks are 鈥渆vidence of how the impasse will probably end: with an eleventh-hour, smaller compromise that Boehner has been slowly but surely shepherding,鈥� Costa wrote.

Of course, for that to be the case, the Obama administration would have to retreat from its current position that there can be no fiscal negotiations until the government is open and the debt ceiling raised.