memeorandum: Ted Cruz Punches Back (Robert Costa/National Review)

12:25 PM ET, September 20, 2013

Top Items:

Actually, Senate GOP can't filibuster to defund Obamacare — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS OBAMACARE SENATE HEALTH CARE TED CRUZ — Senate Republicans, along with GOP lawmakers in the House, know that Sen. Ted Cruz and his colleagues don't have the votes to pass a continuing resolution to defund Obamacare.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Business Insider, Guardian, Hot Air, National Review and Outside the Beltway

Tim Alberta / NationalJournal.com:

Inside Boehner's Plan To Avoid Shutdown (And Wound Obamacare) — Forget Friday's big spending bill vote. House leaders know the Senate will reject it and are ready to respond. Here's the GOP playbook. — House Republicans have orchestrated a master plan to avoid a government shutdown …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, USA Today, Taegan Goddard's …, NBCNews, Washington Post, First Read, The World's Greatest …, National Review, Hot Air and Politico

Robert Costa / National Review:

Ted Cruz Punches Back — Even among Republicans, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is one of Washington's most divisive figures. Activists love him, but leadership staffers and many of his colleagues can't stand him — especially his latest effort to connect a government-spending bill with the defunding of Obamacare.

Discussion: American Prospect, Right Turn, Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze.com, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Commentary Magazine, The Hill, Balloon Juice and BuzzFeed

Paul Courson / CNN:

Peter King: Ted Cruz ‘is a fraud’ — Washington (CNN) - The government shutdown showdown is getting ugly. — Republican Rep. Peter King said Friday that his Republican colleague in the Senate, Ted Cruz, “is a fraud” who will “no longer have any influence in the Republican Party” …

Discussion: The Hill and Politico

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

House votes 230-189 to fund government, defund ObamaCare — The House on Friday passed legislation that defunds ObamaCare but would keep the government running through mid-December. — The legislation was approved on a party line 230-189 vote, with Rep. Scott Rigell (Va.) the only GOP no vote.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and LifeNews.com

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

House passes spending bill to defund Obamacare — House Republicans passed their stopgap funding bill Friday to keep government open while terminating the new health care law, setting up a final showdown next week with Senate Democrats and President Obama who have firmly rejected that.

New York Times:

Conservatives Take Turns Standing Up to the Speaker — WASHINGTON — Those in the circle of fiery House conservatives who are spearheading a fiscal showdown that threatens to shut down the government see themselves in vaunted company. — “It only takes one with passion — look at Rosa Parks …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Hullabaloo and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Yahoo! News:

House sends government spending bill to the Senate without Obamacare funding — The House on Friday approved a bill to temporarily fund the government that would strip funding for the 2010 federal health care law known as Obamacare, a move that will set up a showdown with the Senate next week that could result in a government shutdown.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo: Reminder: Obamacare Will Continue If Government Shuts Down

Alex Roarty / NationalJournal.com:
The Republicans Who Fear a Shutdown

Discussion: Politico and First Read

Niels Lesniewski / The World's Greatest …:
Why Ted Cruz Might Be Right About Defunding Obamacare in the Senate

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill and The Huffington Post

Bryan Koenig / CNN:
Rep. King on defund plan: ‘Custer, Kamikaze’

Discussion: Politico, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Business Insider, DownWithTyranny!, Connecting.the.Dots and The Hill

David Weigel / Slate:
Welcome to the Republican Party's make-believe fight to defund Obamacare.

Discussion: The New Republic, BillMoyers.com, Achenblog, Fox News, American Thinker, Post Politics, Talking Points Memo and The Hill

New York Times:
The March to Anarchy — Until now, the only House Republicans pushing …

Discussion: naked capitalism, The Week, Connecting.the.Dots, msnbc.com and CNN

Ron Nixon / New York Times:
House Republicans Pass Deep Cuts in Food Stamps

Discussion: Washington Post, Shakesville, The Week, The Raw Story, Daily Kos and National Review

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

The real Navy Yard scandal — In the liberal remake of “Casablanca,” the police captain comes upon the scene of the shooting and orders his men to “round up the usual weapons.” — It's always the weapon and never the shooter. Twelve people are murdered in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and Betsy's Page

Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Americans Fault Mental Health System Most for Gun Violence

Discussion: Politico and Post Politics

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Firm that ran background check on Snowden also vetted Navy Yard shooter

Discussion: ABC News

Ashley Halsey III / Washington Post:
Navy Yard rampage began with gunman's colleagues, sources and witnesses say

Discussion: WJLA-TV, The Hill and The Week

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Not all mass shootings are equal in the eyes of the media or the public

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers and TheBlaze.com

yosemite.epa.gov:

EPA Proposes Carbon Pollution Standards for New Power Plants / Agency takes important step to reduce carbon pollution from power plants as part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan — Contact Information: Julia P. Valentine (NEWS MEDIA ONLY), valentine.julia@epa.gov, 202-564-0496 …

Discussion: ABC News, Guardian and The Volokh Conspiracy

Julian Hattem / E2-Wire: EPA releases draft rules to cut emissions from power plans

Washington Post:
EPA moves to limit emissions of future coal- and gas-fired power plants

Discussion: The Week and Wonkblog

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Administration to Press Ahead With Carbon Limits

Discussion: National Review

Wall Street Journal:

Pricing Glitch Afflicts Rollout of Online Health Exchanges … Less than two weeks before the launch of insurance marketplaces created by the federal health overhaul, the government's software can't reliably determine how much people need to pay for coverage, according to insurance executives and people familiar with the program.

Discussion: Forbes, National Review, The Heritage Foundation, The PJ Tatler, Washington Free Beacon and Corrente

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Crazy Party — Early this year, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, made headlines by telling his fellow Republicans that they needed to stop being the “stupid party.” Unfortunately, Mr. Jindal failed to offer any constructive suggestions about how they might do that.

Discussion: The Federalist, Power Line, msnbc.com, PostPartisan, PoliticusUSA, American Spectator, Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

Tamara Cohen / Daily Mail:

World's top climate scientists told to ‘cover up’ the fact that the Earth's temperature hasn't risen for the last 15 years — Scientists working on the most authoritative study on climate change were urged to cover up the fact that the world's temperature hasn't risen for the last 15 years, it is claimed.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Climate Depot and Vox Popoli

Owen Bennett / Daily Express:
What climate change? Fewer people than EVER believe the world is really warming up

Discussion: Althouse and Daily Pundit

Politico:

Pelosi unplugged — Striking a tone of disgust, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ridicules the GOP as obsessed with its loathing of President Obama and hell-bent on hurting him politically, regardless the cost. She assigns little to no blame to the president (even though Democrats privately …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, The Gateway Pundit, Right Wing News, The Hill and Daily Kos

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:

Rand Paul: ‘We are winning’ like Charlie Sheen — Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that Republicans are like Charlie Sheen and are actually “winning” despite criticisms this week of party disarray over a budget strategy that would defund Obamacare, according to reports.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Andrew Rafferty / First Read:
Rand Paul says recent GOP wins a roadmap for party's future

Discussion: NBCNews, Prairie Weather and Talking Points Memo

Hassan Rouhani / Washington Post:

Why Iran seeks constructive engagement — Hassan Rouhani is president of Iran. — Three months ago, my platform of “prudence and hope” gained a broad, popular mandate. Iranians embraced my approach to domestic and international affairs because they saw it as long overdue.

Discussion: New York Times, Business Insider, Politico, The Week, AEIdeas, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Consortiumnews.com, Via Meadia, NBCNews, The Hill and CNN

Washington Post:

Americans skeptical, confused about health care law's implementation — Poll Questions

Discussion: The Plum Line, Prairie Weather and Taegan Goddard's …

Damla Ergun / ABC News:
Obamacare Arrives 3 Years Later, Little Understood and Not Well-Liked

Discussion: Hot Air

James Chapman / Daily Mail:

Poison at the heart of Labour: Damaging questions for Miliband and Balls as explosive book reveals Brown's spin doctor ran smear campaigns from Downing Street — The toxic culture of spin, smears and feuding at the heart of New Labour is laid bare today in an explosive political memoir.

Discussion: Spectator, Guardian and BBC

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:
Blair's fight to stop Brown's coup

Discussion: BBC, Spectator and Telegraph

Rebecca Leber / ThinkProgress:

Republican Launches Personal Attack Against Keystone XL Activist At Congressional Hearing — On Thursday, a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline ended with an ugly exchange between a Republican congressman and a Nebraska grassroots organizer.

Discussion: Rolling Stone and Alan Colmes' Liberaland