It's a bad assessment
The American public has an unbelievably poor memory and it won't matter that the republicans went on record about anything. The democrats just caved and that's how it's going to be reported. The conservative media will revel in this and point out over and over that the democrats did this for nothing (which now appears to be true) while the more liberal members of the media are going to be up in arms with the democrats capitulation over this. The republicans, who could have paid a terrible price in the upcoming election as they JUST did in this off year election, were just handed talking points and gift. And you can kiss any January standoff good bye. The public won't stand for this again and the liberal faction will NOT believe that their representatives will fight for them when the going gets tough.
Nothing about this is good.