Holding Firm  —  The same question keeps popping up: why doesn't Speaker John Boehner just pass a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government?  It's a ubiquitous query at the Capitol, and it was asked many times this afternoon as House Republicans left their closed-door conference meeting.

Shutdown overreach: More guards at WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn't run  —  WASHINGTON SECRETS BENGHAZI GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN  —  The National Park Service is sending so many officials out to shut down federal parks from visiting Americans that at this rate …

What Happens to Conservatism When the Obamacare War Is Over?  —  When we look back decades from now, one of the keys to understanding this period in our political history will be the story of how a set of market-based health insurance reforms that started as a proposal from the Heritage Foundation …

Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Novelist of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66  —  Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels made him one of the world's best-selling and best-known authors, died on Tuesday in a hospital in Baltimore.  He was 66.  —  Ivan Held, the president …

US government shutdown: Barack Obama looks like a bitter, petty and partisan president  —  The American Left's hatred for all things conservative has been on full display in Washington in recent days, with the White House and its allies in Congress heaving with anger and indignation …

Exclusive: Mia Farrow and Eight of Her Children Speak Out on Their Lives, Frank Sinatra, and the Scandals They've Endured  —  See a slide show of Mia's children and quotes from Orth's piece.  —  Twenty years after Vanity Fair special correspondent Maureen Orth reported on the sexual-abuse …

The Sad and Predictable Death of the “Fund Our Veterans” Republican Gambit  —  Ideally, as of this morning, Republicans were hoping that Democrats would come to Jesus and agree to form a conference committee to hammer out the continuing resolution.  As of this afternoon …

Why Are So Many People in a Blind Rage These Days?  —  Paul Waldman, as he so often does, says what I've been thinking: … Roger that.  But then he adds this: … This is conventional wisdom, of course.  The reason the tea party caucus isn't willing to compromise is because there's no pressure on them to compromise.

Wednesday: House will try again on veterans, parks, DC  —  The House on Wednesday will try again to pass three narrow spending resolutions aimed at easing some of the disruption caused by the government shutdown.  But these resolutions will pass in the face of opposition from Democrats …

The shutdown is the Constitution's fault  —  You made this happen, buster.  (National Archives)  —  The government is shut down.  Two million federal workers are having paychecks delayed, and 800,000 of them might never be repaid at all.  Food safety inspections are on hold.