memeorandum: Government shutdown shrinks FEC to just four employees (Dave Levinthal/The Center …)

12:20 PM ET, October 3, 2013

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, CBS New York, Connecting.the.Dots, The Hinterland Gazette, Gawker, Boing Boing, Daily Kos, Politico, Hot Air and WHNT-TV

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: Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars, Washington Post, The Week, Wonkblog, Power Line, NPR, americanthinker.com, Daily Kos, Real Clear Politics, Hot Air, Balloon Juice, Fix the Debt, Taylor Marsh and The Hill

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Government shutdown: Why many Republicans have no reason to deal — The prevailing wisdom ahead of the government shutdown was that tea party lawmakers who agitated for it would fold within a few days, once they got an earful from angry constituents and felt the sting of bad headlines.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Daily Beast, The Plum Line and Brains and Eggs

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: Washington Wire, American Prospect, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, The Rachel Maddow Show, msnbc.com, Guardian, The Hill, Mediaite, The Hinterland Gazette, The Reality-Based Community and Daily Kos

Politico:

Government shutdown: Is a 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 …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Raw Story, Hullabaloo, susiemadrak.com, The Hill, Hot Air and Washington Monthly

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo: Poll Confirms Americans Blame GOP For Shutdown

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
John Boehner, between a rock and a hard place on shutdown and debt limit

Discussion: The Fix, National Review, The Plum Line, First Read, msnbc.com and Wall Street Journal

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Out of ideas, House GOP considers Hail Mary

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Hot Air and Betsy's Page

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Bachmann: Republicans ‘About The Happiest’ They've Been In A While During Shutdown (VIDEO)

Discussion: Mediaite

Suzy Khimm / msnbc.com:
What's the fight about? Republicans struggle to explain

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Huffington Post and National Review

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
On Capitol Hill, the Obamacare fight is no longer about Obamacare

Discussion: NBCNews, Townhall.com, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Hot Air, Los Angeles Times, Hullabaloo and The Hill

Jim Williams / Public Policy Polling:
Conspiracy Theories Round Two: Republicans More Likely To Subscribe to Government Conspiracy Theories

Discussion: Truthout Stories, PoliticusUSA, Reuters and CANNONFIRE

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: Washington Wire, No More Mister Nice Blog, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, BOR, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, PoliticusUSA, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, The Lonely Conservative, The Raw Story, The Hill, Lawyers, Guns & Money and CNN

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Coburn challenges McConnell on ‘leadership vacuum’ — An outspoken conservative lawmaker recently challenged Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) at a closed-door meeting, saying there is a GOP “leadership vacuum” in the upper chamber, according to sources.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

David Espo / ABC News:
Analysis: Republicans Get Opposite of Stated Goals

Discussion: Associated Press and Politico

Mason Stevenson / WPSD Local 6:

Live mic catches Senators McConnell and Paul talking strategy — WASHINGTON, D.C. - WPSD Local 6 got an inside glimpse Wednesday night to how much the government shutdown is about the messaging for congressional lawmakers. — After finishing an interview with CNN, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul ran …

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

McConnell, Rand Paul Caught On Hot Mic Talking Shutdown Strategy (VIDEO) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) were caught on a hot mic Wednesday night while discussing their party's messaging on the government shutdown.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Political Capital

Tom Curry / NBCNews: McCain in the middle: Can Senate's GOP elders solve shutdown mess?

New York Times:

Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law — A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, theGrio, The Raw Story, The Hugh Hewitt Show, First Read, Gawker and Prairie Weather

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: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Twitchy, Scared Monkeys, Washington Free Beacon, Weasel Zippers, National Review, Hot Air and WND

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:

Montana lieutenant governor announces Senate bid — Montana Lieutenant Gov. John Walsh (D) will run for the Senate, he announced Thursday morning, giving Democrats a viable recruit in the GOP-leaning state. — Walsh, a former adjudant general in the Montana National Guard who served in Iraq …

Discussion: Politico and Booman Tribune

Eleanor Clift / The Daily Beast:

Denny Hastert Disses the ‘Hastert Rule’: It ‘Never Really Existed’ — The former Republican speaker's ‘rule,’ that you can't bring legislation to the House floor without a majority of GOP votes, is cited as the reason Boehner can't end the shutdown. But Hastert tells Eleanor Clift it's a ‘non-entity’ …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Booman Tribune and The Huffington Post

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Extremists, Not “Nihilists” — The rapidly spreading progressive CW about what House Republicans are doing is that they are “nihilists” who have blundered into an impasse and have no clue how to get out. Jonathan Chait vividly compares them to characters in the Cohn Brothers' tragi-comedy Fargo:

Discussion: A plain blog about politics

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Power says she's regretted calling Hillary a monster ‘every day since’ — U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power says she's regretted calling Hillary Clinton a “monster” during the 2008 presidential campaign “pretty much every day since.” — “It was beyond searing,” Power said Thursday on NBC's The Today Show.

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Brian Beutler / Salon:

The right's new lie about its shutdown intentions — If Ted Cruz is making John Boehner dance like a marionette, then Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., is the guy helping Cruz keep the strings untangled. — He's the author of the House's version of the famous letter insisting that Republicans …

Discussion: The Plum Line

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, Scared Monkeys, The PJ Tatler, The Other McCain, protein wisdom, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Examiner

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

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.

Discussion: Politico and ThinkProgress

Mike Allen / Politico:

Taylor Griffin running for Congress in N.C. — Taylor Griffin, a former aide to President George W. Bush who went on to co-found Hamilton Place Strategies, has moved back home to eastern North Carolina and on Thursday will announce a challenge to a fellow Republican, Rep. Walter Jones.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Jessica Taylor / msnbc.com:

Leave us out of it! — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie listens to a question at an event Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, in Camden, N.J. (Photo by Mel Evans/AP) — Washington Republicans are getting little help from their friends in governor's mansions across the country.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, New York Times and First Read