memeorandum: Foreign extremists dominate Syria fight (Liz Sly/Washington Post)

2:50 AM ET, October 3, 2013

Top Items:

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: Power Line, Taylor Marsh, Real Clear Politics and Balloon Juice

Politico:

Is grand bargain the only way out? — Many pragmatic House Republicans have come to a simple conclusion: Navigating their way out of this fiscal mess won't be easy. — They think their best chance to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and extract any concession from President Barack Obama is to strike a big budget deal.

Discussion: National Review, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

GOP stands firm against funding bill, will link to debt ceiling fight — OBAMACARE DEBT CEILING PENNAVE BUDGETS AND DEFICITS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN — House Republicans are unlikely to blink in the standoff over Obamacare that precipitated a government shutdown, fearing that acceding …

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Huffington Post, Taegan Goddard's …, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Hinterland Gazette

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Bank CEOs huddle with Obama

Discussion: Politico and Washington Monthly

Sheldon Alberts / The Hill:
No sign of government shutdown ending after White House meeting

Discussion: Politico

Manu Raju / Politico:

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 …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, Daily Kos and The Raw Story

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

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: his vorpal sword and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House passes bills to fund DC, parks and medical research

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid offers to talk tax reform if GOP ends shutdown (Video)

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CNN, Hot Air, Fix the Debt and WND

The Right Scoop:

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.

Discussion: Doug Ross and protein wisdom

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion: Opposing Views, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, Shakesville, Liberal Values and Business Insider

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

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

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

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

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

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

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

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: Trail Blazers Blog, The Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

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: Salon, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Mahablog

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review and protein wisdom

Thomas Frank / Salon:

Reaching for the pillars: The conservative plan is sabotage — Direct assaults on government fail because people want a secure retirement and education. So the right fights dirty — Conservative crusaders have often taken up the question of what to do about government.

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, Gawker, Guardian, The Daily Caller 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: Talking Points Memo and Politico

Chad Terhune / Los Angeles Times:

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 …

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, WND and The Daily Caller

Kevin Gosztola / Firedoglake:

Four Decades of Cruel, Degrading & Inhuman Treatment - But Herman Wallace Is Now Free — Screen shot from “Democracy Now!” broadcast featuring segment on Herman Wallace's release — For over four decades, Herman Wallace (one of the Angola 3) was held in solitary confinement in the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette and The Raw Story