memeorandum: Juan Linz's Bad News for America (Matthew Yglesias/Slate)

9:45 PM ET, October 2, 2013

Top Items:

Sheldon Alberts / The Hill:

No sign of government shutdown ending after White House meeting — President Obama and congressional leaders met for the first time Wednesday in a bid to find common ground on ending the government shutdown, a standstill both parties acknowledge could last weeks.

Discussion: Politico and Pat Dollard

Robert Costa / National Review:

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.

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Reid offers to talk tax reform if GOP ends shutdown (Video) — 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: The Week, Taegan Goddard's … and Balloon Juice

Telegraph:
US government shutdown: Barack Obama looks like a bitter, petty and partisan president

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

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 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

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

Jillian Rogers / GOP.com:
RNC Will Pay To Keep WWII Memorial Open

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

Fox News:
New wave of WWII veterans move barricades to access DC memorial

Discussion: Shot in the Dark, Viking Pundit and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, Rush Limbaugh, The Week, Hit & Run, The Right Scoop, Weasel Zippers, Twitchy, TheBlaze.com and The Gateway Pundit

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
Wednesday: House will try again on veterans, parks, DC

Discussion: Daily Kos, Conservatives4Palin, The Mahablog, Shakesville and Heritage Action for America

Sy Mukherjee / ThinkProgress:

Meet Butch Matthews, A Republican Who Came To Love Obamacare After Realizing It Will Save Him $13,000 — 61-year-old Butch Matthews, left, with his wife Debbie — Butch Matthews is a 61-year-old former small business owner from Little Rock, Arkansas who used to wake up every morning at 4 …

Discussion: Arizona Republic, The Plum Line and Booman Tribune

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, Business Insider, Shakesville and Guardian

Andrew Johnson / National Review:
Zero Enroll in New LA Plan on Obamacare's First Day

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Paul Waldman / American Prospect:
What Happens to Conservatism When the Obamacare War Is Over?

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Rebecca Catalanello / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Obamacare website glitches leave Blue Cross of Louisiana without new enrollees after first day

Discussion: Pat Dollard, Wonkblog, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Washington Post, National Review and Twitchy

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: Washington Monthly and Politico

Politico:
Is grand bargain the only way out? — Many pragmatic House …

Discussion: Hot Air and Hullabaloo

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Focus shifts to looming debt-ceiling deadline as shutdown talks at White House go nowhere

Discussion: Mediaite, The Fix, Voices and New York Times

Martin Wolf / Financial Times:
America flirts with self-destruction

Discussion: Salon, Politico, Crooks and Liars and Wall Street Journal

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, Trail Blazers Blog and The Raw Story

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: The Mahablog and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review and protein wisdom

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: Taegan Goddard's …, NPR, The Huffington Post, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos and The PJ Tatler

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, Washington Times, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, The Federalist, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Weekly Standard, National Review and Weasel Zippers

Robert Costa / National Review:

Boehner to GOP: Grand Bargain in the Works — House Republicans tell me Speaker John Boehner wants to craft a “grand bargain” on fiscal issues as part of the debt-limit deliberations, and during a series of meetings on Wednesday, he urged colleagues to stick with him. — The revelation came quietly.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

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

Jason Noble / Des Moines Register:

BREAKING: Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson resigns after report finds he received money from Bachmann campaign — By Jason Noble and Jennifer Jacobs — Kent Sorenson, the Iowa state senator embattled over accusations that he inappropriately received pay from at least one presidential campaign …

Discussion: Politico and Talking Points Memo

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:

Cruz warns shutdown could lead to terrorist attacks — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned on Wednesday that the government shutdown could leave the United States vulnerable to terrorist attacks. — “If, God forbid, we see an attack on the United States because the intelligence community …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

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 and Eschaton

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Master of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66 — Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels spawned a new genre of thrillers and made him one of the world's best-known and best-selling authors, died on Tuesday in Baltimore. He was 66.