memeorandum: EXCLUSIVE: Two decades after her affair with Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers reveals they'd be together … (Laura Collins/Daily Mail)

7:55 PM ET, September 19, 2013

Top Items:

The GOP's Self-Defeating ‘Defunding’ Strategy — It will only strengthen the president while alienating independents. — In 2010, Republicans took the House of Representatives by gaining 63 seats. They also picked up six U.S. senators and 675 state legislators, giving them control …

David Weigel / Slate:

Welcome to the Republican Party's make-believe fight to defund Obamacare. — If you're in a hurry, and you can only memorize one fact about the coming congressional debt and budget war, try this: There will be no “defunding of Obamacare.” It's impossible for Republicans to admit it …

Brian Beutler / Salon:

New test could expose GOP's pack of charlatans — Conservatives in the Senate have spent weeks and weeks hectoring House Republicans to stand true to GOP principles and make funding for the federal government contingent upon Democrats agreeing to defund Obamacare.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Examiner, Talking Points Memo, PostPartisan, Hullabaloo, The Plum Line and CNN

Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:

Ted Cruz Digs Himself In Further On Obamacare: ‘Likely That It Will Take Another Election For A Full Repeal’ — WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) didn't have much to say Thursday in response to House Republicans fuming at him for conceding that the Democrat-controlled Senate …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, BOR, The Hinterland Gazette, The Fix, The Plum Line and Business Insider

Kirsten Powers / The Daily Beast:

The GOP Is Threatening Murder-Suicide With New Shutdown Warnings — If the president refuses to defund Obamacare, House Republicans are happy to retaliate with a government shutdown. What they're really headed for is complete ruination, says Kirsten Powers. — The Republican Party is destroying America.

Discussion: NewsBusters, The PJ Tatler and Democratic Policy & …

Glenn Kessler / The Fact Checker:

Obama's claim that non-budget items have ‘never’ been attached to the debt ceiling — “You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt being used to extort a president or a governing party and trying to force issues that have nothing …

Discussion: Hot Air and Independent Journal Review

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Boehner To Cruz: Time To Put Up Or Shut Up On Defunding Obamacare

Discussion: CNN and National Review

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate sees way forward on funding bill

Discussion: The Hill, National Review and The Huffington Post

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo: McCain: To Think We Can Repeal Obamacare ‘Is Not Rational’ (VIDEO)

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner: Obama should negotiate on debt, but not with me

Discussion: E2-Wire, Politico, The Hill and Daily Kos

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Some House GOP conservatives want Cruz-Paul-Rubio-Lee filibuster on Obamacare defunding

Discussion: Daily Kos, Hot Air and National Review

Sabrina Siddiqui / The Huffington Post:
Ted Cruz Infuriates House Republicans By Conceding Defeat On Obamacare Repeal

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Hill, Mediaite, Business Insider, A plain blog about politics, Politico, Real Clear Politics, Washington Wire, Roll Call and The Hill

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner challenges Senate GOP to ‘get the job done’ on defunding

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Pope Bluntly Faults Church's Focus on Gays and Abortion — Alessandro Di Meo/European Pressphoto Agency — Pope Francis, who has said the church should be a “home for all,” on Sept. 4 in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. — Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy …

America Magazine:

A Big Heart Open to God — The exclusive interview with Pope Francis — Editor's Note: This interview with Pope Francis took place over the course of three meetings during August 2013 in Rome. The interview was conducted in person by Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal.

Discussion: Firedoglake, PostPartisan, The Dish, msnbc.com, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Guardian, LifeNews.com, CNN, The Week, CBS DC, The ToastThe Toast, NPR and The Raw Story

CNN:
Pope Francis: Church can't ‘interfere’ with gays

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, msnbc.com, The Dish and Towleroad News #gay

Yahoo! News:

Creepy Obamacare ad hits college campuses and your nightmares — There will be girls. There will be beer. There will be cornhole. And someone will be dressed in the creepiest Uncle Sam costume you've ever seen. — Welcome to the strange new front in the war over Obamacare.

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
WATCH: Anti-Obamacare Videos With ‘Creepy Uncle Sam’

Discussion: Mashable, The PJ Tatler and A Spork in the Drawer

English pravda.ru:

Senator John McCain: Russians deserve better than Putin — When Pravda.ru editor, Dmitry Sudakov, offered to publish my commentary, he referred to me as “an active anti-Russian politician for many years.” I'm sure that isn't the first time Russians have heard me characterized as their antagonist.

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Truthfully, John McCain in wrong Pravda

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, English pravda.ru, Guardian, The Moderate Voice, TheBlaze.com, Joe. My. God., Mediaite, Connecting.the.Dots and Business Insider

Associated Press:

DeLay thanks God after aquittal for money laundering — HOUSTON - Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay says he thanks God for his acquittal on money laundering charges, calling the prosecution, “an outrageous criminalization of politics.” — Lunching in the Capitol with other Texas Republicans Thursday …

Discussion: Houston Chronicle, The Raw Story, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and Taegan Goddard's …

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
Conviction of DeLay Is Overturned DeLay's Conviction Is Overturned

Discussion: Washington Monthly

USA Today:
Texas court overturns Tom DeLay conviction

Discussion: Associated Press, Hot Air, neo-neocon, Hawkings Here, Taylor Marsh, The Daily Caller and Gretawire

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
Tom Delay's conviction overturned

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Laura Collins / Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: Two decades after her affair with Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers reveals they'd be together now if it wasn't for Chelsea and how former president confided in her that Hillary was bisexual — She bitterly regrets rejecting him when he last begged to see her and says he's the ‘love of her life’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Little Green Footballs, Right Wing Watch, Taegan Goddard's …, Rush Limbaugh, The Jawa Report, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Caller, Gawker and American Spectator

Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:

Spitting on Their Graves: Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families of Victims — During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Independent Journal Review, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler and Sister Toldjah

Associated Press:

Warming lull haunts authors of key climate report — STOCKHOLM (AP) — Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling to explain why global warming appears to have slowed down in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

Discussion: PlanetSave

Marc Morano / Climate Depot:
Nature editorial: 'The IPCC's mega-assessments are out of date by the time they hit the streets'; …

Discussion: InsideClimate News, Pirate's Cove, The Gateway Pundit and BREITBART.COM

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Two Men Dead In Michigan Road Rage Shootout, Police Say — Police said two men died Wednesday after a shootout allegedly motivated by road rage, the Grand Rapids Press reported. — The initial police investigation showed Ionia, Mich. residents James Pullum, 43, and Robert Taylor, 56 …

Andrew Krietz / MLive.com:
Road rage shootout: 2 men killed identified after evening incident in Ionia

Discussion: The Raw Story

Craig Bannister / CNSNews:

Obama: ‘Raising the Debt Ceiling...Does Not Increase Our Debt,’ Though It Has ‘Over 100 Times’ — Raising the debt ceiling doesn't increase the nation's debt, Pres. Obama declared in a speech today. — In a speech at the Business Roundtable headquarters in Washington, D.C. …

Discussion: msnbc.com, protein wisdom, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin, The White House, Conservatives4Palin, Vox Popoli, Questions and Observations, PoliticusUSA and TheBlaze.com

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
Yes, Americans Like the Debt Ceiling - And it Matters

Discussion: The Plum Line, Business Insider, The Mahablog, National Review and Taegan Goddard's …

Dan Primack / Fortune:

AllThingsD parting ways with Dow Jones — AllThingsD and The Wall Street Journal call it quits. — FORTUNE — The team behind influential tech site AllThingsD is severing ties with founding owner Dow Jones, a subsidiary of News Corp. (NWS). A formal statement is expected later today.

Discussion: Politico, The Verge, Gawker, TechCrunch, Mashable, Deadline.com and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Ron Nixon / New York Times:

House Passes Bill Cutting $40 Billion From Food Stamps — WASHINGTON — House Republicans narrowly pushed through a bill on Thursday that slashes billions of dollars from the food stamp program, over the objections of Democrats and a veto threat from President Obama.

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
House Republicans pushing for major food stamp cuts

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, BuzzFeed, Daily Kos, Des Moines Register, Shakesville and The Raw Story

Dylan Byers / Politico:

DOJ spox to USA Today: ‘I will save what I have for another outlet’ — A Department of Justice spokesperson who initially offered to provide sources to USA Today has reversed that decision on the grounds that the reporter was “biased” and would not forego his story even if the sources undercut its premise.

Discussion: Techdirt and Popehat, more at Mediagazer »

Brad Heath / USA Today:
Justice Dept. watchdog never probed judges' NSA concerns

Discussion: Hit & Run and emptywheel

Marc Caputo / Naked Politics:

Hillary Clinton's image control: Security swipes man's phone, erases pic of her at speech — Hillary Clinton quietly slipped into Miami on Thursday to address a travel agents convention in a speech where the former secretary of state said little about troubles abroad or the future ambitions of the likely presidential-race frontrunner.

Discussion: The Hill