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.

Ted Cruz blasted by angry GOP colleagues  —  Ted Cruz faced a barrage of hostile questions Wednesday from angry GOP senators, who lashed the Texas tea party freshman for helping prompt a government shutdown crisis without a strategy to end it.  —  At a closed-door lunch meeting …

Poll: Americans not happy about shutdown; more blame GOP  —  PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO  —  On day three of the partial government shutdown, a new CBS News poll reveals that a large majority of Americans disapprove of the shutdown and more are blaming Republicans than President Obama and the Democrats for it.

Mark Levin to Obama: You lay one hand on WW2 vets and I'LL BRING HALF A MILLION PEOPLE TO THAT MEMORIAL!  —  Mark Levin warned everyone on Capitol Hill that if they lay a hand on the WWII vets at the memorial to arrest them for visiting their own memorial, he'll bring a half a million people to march on Washington.

House passes bills to fund DC, parks and medical research  —  The House approved three targeted spending resolutions to the Senate on Wednesday, daring Senate Democrats to vote against measures to immediately fund the District of Columbia, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Park Service.

California exchange overstated its Web traffic for Obamacare launch  —  Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, discusses the launch of the state's insurance exchange Tuesday in Los Angeles.  (Reed Saxon/AP / October 2, 2013)  —  California's health insurance exchange vastly overstated …

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.

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.

Brendan Mahoney Saves ObamaCare  —  Great news!  They got a 30-year-old dude to sign up!  —  “People complain of having to stand in line for hours, often in vain, and many are losing patience with the government's explanation that unsavory conspirators are to blame for the nation's problems,” reports the New York Times.

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.