One week into the shutdown, we've seen the media hurl a plethora of creative perjoratives to demonize Republicans from Chris Matthews "political terrorists" to Ed Schultz's "treasonists." However, William Saletan of Slate.com went as far to make a play for play comparison of the shutdown to the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979 with Republicans in the role of Ayatollah Khomeini. "They’ve taken parts of the government hostage, and now they’re releasing some the hostages, expecting to win praise and concessions."

If you reread the history of the Iran hostage crisis, starting with Congress’ official chronology of it, you’ll see patterns of resemblance. Soon after seizing the U.S. and British embassies, the Iranians adjusted their demands. First they said we had to extradite the deposed shah, who had come to the U.S. for cancer treatment. Then they said we only had to declare him a criminal. Then we only had to authorize an international investigation.

After a detailed segment illustrating how Khomeini gradually released hostages to drum up positive PR on the international stage, Saletan then goes on to describe the similarities between Khomeini and the Republican "negotiating" tactics seen during the past week.

Republicans began with a big grab—shutting down the whole government—and are now offering to return parts of what they took, bill by bill, in exchange for concessions and the appearance of moderation. “You're seeing House Republicans over and over again passing reasonable bills to open vital government services, and President Obama and the Democrats refusing to negotiate,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argued Sunday.

Saletan finishes by pleading with Republicans to stop playing games and release all the "hostages" at once.