memeorandum: Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Novelist of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66 (Julie Bosman/New York Times)

6:35 PM ET, October 2, 2013

Top Items:

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.

Washington Free Beacon:

Reid: ‘Why Would We Want To’ Help One Kid With Cancer? — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) asked why Senate Democrats would want to fund the National Institutes of Health to “help one child who has cancer” Wednesday when asked that question by CNN reporter Dana Bash.

Discussion: NewsBusters, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, National Review and Weasel Zippers

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

Grover Norquist on Ted Cruz: ‘He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away’ — Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform and the creator of the anti-tax pledge that nearly every Republican in Congress has signed. We spoke on Tuesday about the government shutdown and its consequences for his agenda.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Trail Blazers Blog

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Reid offers to talk tax reform if GOP ends federal shutdown — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offered to open negotiations on tax reform Wednesday if Republicans agree to a clean resolution to reopen the government. — Reid sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) …

Discussion: Politico, CNN and WND

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Why the Shutdown Is Leading to Debt Default; or, What Happens When You Take Hostages Without a Plan — The federal government shutdown, while important, is a dry run for the potentially cataclysmic debt-ceiling standoff. What does it portend? Evidence can be found for both alarm and complacency …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, The Week and Balloon Juice

Speaker.gov:
President Obama Turns His Back on Veterans

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Hinterland Gazette, PoliticusUSA, The Right Scoop and Defense One

Debbi Wilgoren / Washington Post:
‘Exasperated’ Obama cancels part of Asia trip, calls congressional leaders to White House

Discussion: Mediaite, Voices, The Fix and Post Politics

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Why Boehner doesn't just ditch the hard right

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Week, Washington Post, Business Insider, The Dish, The Gateway Pundit, Pirate's Cove, Obsidian Wings, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos and Post Politics

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:
Obama Summons Congressional Leaders to White House

Discussion: CNN, Yahoo! News, Washington Times, The Plum Line, Associated Press, Hit & Run, Wonkblog, Politico and Washington Post

Patrick Poole / The PJ Tatler:

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: McDonald's Employee Admits Being Paid $15 to Protest WW2 Veterans (UPDATED) — Yesterday I reported from the National World War Two Memorial on several members of Congress crashing the barricades set up by the National Park Service that were keeping out several hundred Honor Flight veterans …

Discussion: Power Line, The Jawa Report and The Gateway Pundit

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:

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 …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Twitchy, BuzzFeed, Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The PJ Tatler, The Lonely Conservative and The Right Scoop

Jillian Rogers / GOP.com:

RNC Will Pay To Keep WWII Memorial Open — WASHINGTON - This afternoon RNC Chairman Reince Priebus visited the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC to announce that the Republican National Committee would cover the cost of keeping it open for the next 30 days.

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, Washington Times, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Lachlan Markay / Washington Free Beacon:
Shutdown Theater — The National Park Service has ordered …

Discussion: Washington Post, Weasel Zippers, Hit & Run, Rush Limbaugh, The Week, Hot Air, The Right Scoop, Twitchy, The Gateway Pundit, TheBlaze.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Outside the Beltway

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:
Rand Paul: ‘Goons’ blocked WWII Memorial

Discussion: Northwest Ohio, Hot Air, American Spectator, Conservatives4Palin, The Strata-Sphere, The Other McCain, WND, The Lead with Jake Tapper, The Atlantic Wire, The Mississippi Press, WJLA-TV, BuzzFeed and The Daily Caller

Leo Shane III / Stars & Stripes:
Park service: Honor Flight visits are a ‘First Amendment activity’

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Telegraph:

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 …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, ThinkProgress, CANNONFIRE, Questions and Observations, Washington Post, VodkaPundit and Post Politics

John Harwood / CNBC:

Obama to Wall Street: This time be worried — Obama to Wall Street: You should be concerned this time — In an exclusive interview with CNBC's John Harwood, President Obama says Wall Street should be concerned about the ongoing impasse between him and House Republicans over funding the government and the debt limit.

Discussion: Daily Kos, NPR and The PJ Tatler

Associated Press:

With Traditional GOP Allies Defecting, Big Business Takes Sides With Obama — WASHINGTON (AP) — Having failed to persuade their traditional Republican allies in Congress to avert a government shutdown, business leaders fear bigger problems ahead, and they're taking sides …

Discussion: Associated Press, Firedoglake, Booman Tribune, The Week, Taylor Marsh and Salon

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

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 …

Discussion: Pat Dollard, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, ProfessorBainbridge.com and Taylor Marsh

CNN:
Sources: Author Tom Clancy dead

Discussion: BizPac Review and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

USA Today:
Author Tom Clancy dies at 66

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Jay Z / Vanity Fair:

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 …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Mediaite, ABC News, DCist, The Daily Caller, Guardian, Gawker and Althouse

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Juan Linz's Bad News for America — The Yale political scientist died this week. His life's work tells us that American democracy is doomed. — Juan Linz, the distinguished Yale political scientist, died on Tuesday morning in New Haven, Conn., at the age of 86.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and protein wisdom

Dylan Matthews / Wonkblog:
The shutdown is the Constitution's fault

Discussion: Washington Monthly, protein wisdom and National Review

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:

The truth is, Americans love Obamacare — Among the many delusions guiding the Republican campaign against the Affordable Care Act, surely the most consistent is the idea that the public detests the law and is clamoring for repeal. — Here's the truth: The American public loves Obamacare …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Shakesville, Business Insider and Guardian

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

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.

Discussion: Liberal Values, Eschaton and American Prospect

Paul Waldman / American Prospect:

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 …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Erick Erickson / RedState:

Hold Your Ground and Shut John Cornyn Up — After three years of getting ready, yesterday the nation signed on to get Obamacare only to have websites across America crash. The ones that were not crashing were scam sites designed for identity theft. Amid all of that, if you tried …

Discussion: protein wisdom and LifeNews.com

David Weigel / Slate:
The Sad and Predictable Death of the “Fund Our Veterans” Republican Gambit

Discussion: Mother Jones, Balloon Juice, Politico, Hot Air and Hit & Run

Justin Sink / The Hill:

President praises pope — President Obama said Wednesday he had been “hugely impressed” by Pope Francis after being asked about the new pontiff's comments that issues of homosexuality and abortion had consumed too much of the church's attention. — The president said that his admiration came …

Discussion: Politico, CNN and LifeNews.com

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Bank CEOs huddle with Obama — Top banking executives emerged from a meeting with President Obama on Wednesday warning of the “extremely adverse” consequences of a national default. — Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said there is broad agreement in the banking industry that the debt ceiling …

Discussion: Politico and Washington Monthly

Rebecca Catalanello / New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Obamacare website glitches leave Blue Cross of Louisiana without new enrollees after first day — HealthCare.gov10012013SystemUnavail.png — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana reports that not one person has successfully enrolled in a new plan offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace that opened Tuesday at midnight.

Discussion: Hot Air, Wonkblog, National Review and Twitchy