memeorandum: Rubio Withdraws Support for Gay Black Judge's Nomination to the Federal Bench (Lizette Alvarez/New York Times)

5:15 PM ET, September 24, 2013

Top Items:

The Cruz Campaign Against ObamaCare — The freshman Texas Senator volunteers House Republicans for duty on his implausible defunding gambit. — So House Republicans have passed and sent to the Senate a budget that includes no funding for the Affordable Care Act, setting up a political showdown …

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, American Spectator, The Spectacle Blog, National Review, Taylor Marsh, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Hill, Betsy's Page, The Hill, p m carpenter's commentary, msnbc.com, Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo and The World's Greatest …

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Ted Cruz seizes Senate floor in failing quest — Ted Cruz seized control of the Senate floor on Tuesday at about 2:42 p.m., vowing to “speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand.” — But Cruz cannot stop a Senate now in motion from eventually returning …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, DSCC, Ballot Box, Outside the Beltway, The World's Greatest …, ABC News, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

Arlette Saenz / ABC News:

Ted Cruz Vows To Speak Against Obamacare: ‘Until I Am No Longer Able To Stand’ — On Tuesday at 2:41 p.m., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., took the Senate floor to protest a government funding bill that funds President Obama's signature health care reform law. He plans to talk — and talk — all afternoon and possibly all evening long.

Discussion: Business Insider, Crooks and Liars, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Cruz Likens Obamacare Defunding Skeptics To Nazi Appeasers (VIDEO) — During a floor speech Tuesday aimed at reviving the already-dim prospects for his effort to defund Obamacare, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) likened his doubters to Nazi appeasers. — “If you go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany,” Cruz said.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hit & Run and Hullabaloo

Erick Erickson / RedState:

A Cruz Missile Launch, Like a Light, Shows the Cockroaches Scurrying — A curious moment happened on Fox News Sunday. Chris Wallace told Karl Rove that a number of Republicans in Congress had sent him opposition research on Ted Cruz once Fox announced Cruz would be on. — Rove responded.

Discussion: Washington Wire and Talking Points Memo

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Cruz vows filibuster ‘Until I am no longer able to stand’ — Sen. Ted Cruz began a talk-a-thon on the Senate Tuesday afternoon and vowed to keep speaking “until I am no longer able to stand” as he tries to halt President Obama's health care law. — “I rise today to speak for 26 million Texans …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Gateway Pundit

Washington Wire:

Cruz Vows to Speak Until ‘No Longer Able to Stand’ — Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) took his drive to cripple President Barack Obama's health-care law to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, vowing to talk against the law into the night, until he is “no longer able to stand.”

Discussion: The Raw Story

David Frum / The Daily Beast:
Can Ted Cruz Win by Losing?

Discussion: The Fix, Democracy in America, The Dish, Washington Post, Gawker, GQ Magazine Online and American Prospect

Frank Bruni / New York Times:
Ted Cruz's Flinty Path

Discussion: Politico, CNN, The Daily Caller, NPR, p m carpenter's commentary, PolicyMic, Power Line, Talking Points Memo and Prairie Weather

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
GOP flinches at Obamacare plan devised by Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Instapundit

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
There's much less time to avoid a government shutdown than you think

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, The Week, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, Hot Air, The World's Greatest …, BillMoyers.com, Outside the Beltway and American Prospect

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

AIG CEO: Anger over AIG bonuses ‘just as bad’ as lynchings — AIG's CEO Robert Benmosche — who came in to rescue the company after the 2008 financial crisis — told the Wall Street Journal that the outrage over the bonuses promised to AIG's members was just as bad as when white supremacists …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, PolicyMic, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Yo, Wall Street!

Discussion: The New Republic and PostPartisan

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:
AIG Exec: Public Outrage Over Bonuses ‘Just As Bad’ As Lynchings In The South

Discussion: FIRST DRAFT and Hullabaloo

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:
WSJ buries the lead deep on AIG's CEO

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Leslie Scism / WSJ Blogs - WSJ:
AIG's Benmosche and Miller on Villains, Turnarounds and Those Bonuses

Discussion: American Prospect, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post, PostPartisan, The Tell, Gawker and MoneyBeat

Jennifer Epstein / Politico:

Obama, Rouhani won't meet — President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will not meet at the United Nations on Tuesday, senior administration officials said. — The White House had offered to have “an encounter” between the two leaders on the sidelines …

Discussion: Mediaite

Guardian:
Obama tells UN that diplomatic path must be tested with Iran

Discussion: FP Passport, Washington Free Beacon and Real Clear Politics

TIME:
Obama and Rouhani: A Handshake that Could Shake the World

Discussion: Hot Air, WorldViews, Reuters, Washington Free Beacon, Guardian and Real Clear Politics

Ashley Killough / CNN:
Santorum: Iranian president a ‘fraud’

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

Mark Landler / New York Times:
Obama Says He Will Pursue Diplomacy on Iran and Syria

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Lede, The Dish and FP Passport

Fox News:

One man's ObamaCare nightmare — Andy and Amy Mangione of Louisville, Ky. and their two boys are just the kind of people who should be helped by ObamaCare. But they recently got a nasty surprise in the mail. — “When I saw the letter when I came home from work,” Andy said …

Discussion: Grassroot Journal, The Heritage Foundation, americanthinker.com, Conservatives4Palin and New York Times

Politico:

Obamacare: One blow after another — The Obamacare that consumers will finally be able to sign up for next week is a long way from the health plan President Barack Obama first pitched to the nation. — Millions of low-income Americans won't receive coverage.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Yahoo! News, National Review, USA Today, Reuters, Bloomberg, WJLA-TV, Pirate's Cove, msnbc.com and Washington Post

Avik Roy / National Review:
Obamacare Bends the Cost Curve—Upward

Discussion: Middle Class Political …, neo-neocon, Power Line, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Liberal Values and Forbes

Harry J Enten / Guardian:

Facing government shutdown, Obama's party can't bank on 1996 mythology — Convention says Republicans got blamed for the last shutdowns, helping Clinton win in 1996. In reality, it was the economy, stupid — We are less than a week from a possible government shutdown …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Alexandra Jaffe / The Hill:
Conservatives see no threat in showdown over shutdown

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Daily Kos and NPR

Lee Enterprises / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Police: Missouri House staffer left loaded gun in Capitol restroom — • By Elizabeth Crisp ecrisp@post-dispatch.com 573-556-6186 — A Missouri House staffer allegedly left a loaded gun in a public restroom in the state Capitol last week. — According to a Capitol Police incident report …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, PoliticusUSA and The Raw Story

Dorsey Shaw / BuzzFeed:

Cornel West + “Crossfire” = One Hell Of A GIF Factory — Thank goodness for split screen reaction shots on cable news. — You may have missed the extremely animated debate over Obamacare and the future of conservatism last night on Crossfire. — Well, Bill Kristol was there, and he did this, which was great.

Discussion: CNN

Lizette Alvarez / New York Times:

Rubio Withdraws Support for Gay Black Judge's Nomination to the Federal Bench — MIAMI — The nomination of a gay black Miami judge to the federal bench will not move forward after Senator Marco Rubio announced he was withdrawing his support over concerns about the judge's actions in two criminal cases.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Post Politics, Talking Points Memo, Advocate, BuzzFeed, Washington Blade, AMERICAblog News, The Raw Story and Towleroad News #gay

Larry Klayman / RenewAmerica:

Obama's reckoning to come on November 19! — Klayman Calls for the Masses to Force Resignation of Convicted President — Last Wednesday, the great usurper, Barack Hussein Obama, after having been indicted by an Ocala, Florida citizens' grand jury, was convicted by a people's court …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RenewAmerica, Right Wing Watch and Joe. My. God.

Andy Fox / WAVY-TV:

Boys suspended for airsoft guns in yard — Has zero tolerance gone too far? — (1/7)Andy Fox reports on zero tolerance incident at VB middle school — (2/7)Andy Fox reports on VB 7th grader facing expulsion — (3/7)Andy Fox reports on zero gun tolerance at VB schools

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:

Kerry to sign UN arms treaty opposed by Senate, NRA — Kerry's plan to sign the treaty on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City this week has sparked immediate criticism from GOP opponents. — “This treaty is already dead in the water in the Senate, and they know it …

Discussion: Reuters, Weasel Zippers and The Democratic Daily

Jacob Fischler / BuzzFeed:

Trader Lost Millions Apparently Trying To Manipulate Intrade Data To Favor Mitt Romney — A new study reveals that a single trader may have been responsible for making the race seem closer than it really was in the final stretch to Election Day. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pauses …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Gawker, Business Insider, naked capitalism, Taegan Goddard's … and Washington Wire