WASHINGTON — Just when it seemed like politicians were kind of getting along, crazy season returned to Capitol Hill in full force Wednesday.

Although for the better part of three years, Congress has been unable to conduct even the most basic functions of its job without acrimony, drama, and last-minute brinkmanship, for almost two weeks while debating the use of military force in Syria, Congress seemed for once singularly focused and serious.

Gone was the bitter infighting between Democrats and Republicans, and between Republican leaders and their conference, replaced by serious-minded lawmakers, showing up for multiple classified briefings during the final week of a five-week recess.

They even started working together: Liberals and conservatives joined forces to oppose the war, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner both supported the strike, and then practically every elected official in Washington embraced the diplomatic option presented by Russia, indefinitely delaying a vote on authorization.

But the vote delay forced congressional leaders to immediately turn their attention to pressing budgetary matters like keeping the government open, which in turn brought the brief period of comity to a close.

It would seem obvious that keeping the government up and running would be a relatively uncontroversial task, but nothing is that easy on Capitol Hill.

"We can look for reconciliation and peace over Christmas. Maybe we'll take a pause for Thanksgiving, but that's about it," quipped Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

Conservatives immediately balked at a plan put forth this week by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, that leadership saw as the best way to get Republicans everything they could want: vote on defunding Obamacare, force the Senate to do so as well, and eventually get a clean continuing resolution passed, leaving them with tons of leverage for a looming debt ceiling battle where they believed they'd eke out some Obamacare concessions from the Senate and the president.