memeorandum: Brendan Mahoney Saves ObamaCare (James Taranto/Wall Street Journal)

10:15 AM ET, October 3, 2013

Top Items:

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, Talking Points Memo, BOR, PoliticusUSA, Outside the Beltway, NBCNews, ThinkProgress, The Raw Story, Daily Kos and The Lonely Conservative

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: Crooks and Liars, Washington Post, The Week, americanthinker.com, Daily Kos, NPR, Power Line, Washington Examiner, Real Clear Politics, Taylor Marsh and Balloon Juice

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 Monthly, The Rachel Maddow Show, Business Insider, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, The Hinterland Gazette, Daily Kos and The Reality-Based Community

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: The Daily Beast, The Plum Line and Brains and Eggs

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: Taegan Goddard's …

David Espo / ABC News:

Analysis: Republicans Get Opposite of Stated Goals — Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation's 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. They got the opposite, and now struggle to convince the public that responsibility for partial closure of the federal establishment lies …

Discussion: Associated Press and Politico

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, Hot Air and New York Magazine

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

John Boehner, between a rock and a hard place on shutdown and debt limit — House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has at his disposal the political tools to reopen the government at a moment's notice. But he would have to rely on an uneasy coalition of Democrats and a few moderate Republicans …

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

Suzy Khimm / msnbc.com:

What's the fight about? Republicans struggle to explain — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) meet with other House Republican conferees on Capitol Hill October 1, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

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

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Grover Norquist on Ted Cruz: ‘He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away’

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

Washington Post:
Government shutdown puts U.S. security at risk

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Pirate's Cove

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:
Cruz warns shutdown could lead to terrorist attacks

Discussion: his vorpal sword, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

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

Discussion: Politico

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Bank CEOs huddle with Obama

Discussion: Politico and Washington Monthly

CBS News:

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, Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Politico and WHNT-TV

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

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

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Reuters and CANNONFIRE

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

In Showdown With G.O.P., a Scrappy Reid Plays Hardball — WASHINGTON — It was not enough for Senator Harry Reid to just dismiss Republican offers as “vexatious” or “kid's stuff” or “one cockamamie, can't-pass idea after another.” He called the White House and asked it to issue a veto threat, which it promptly did.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Doug Ross, Mediaite, Conservatives4Palin and The Lonely Conservative

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

Discussion: WJLA-TV, Shakesville and Patterico's Pontifications

Washington Free Beacon:
Reid: ‘Why Would We Want To’ Help One Kid With Cancer?

Discussion: Heritage Action for America, Politico, Betsy's Page, NewsBusters, Washington Times, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, Hot Air, National Review, The Lonely Conservative, Weekly Standard and Weasel Zippers

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

Discussion: First Read, Politico, Hot Air, Fix the Debt, CNN and WND

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: Twitchy, Scared Monkeys, National Review, Washington Free Beacon, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, WND and The Daily Caller

Des Moines Register:

Kent Sorenson resigns from Senate — Investigation into Bachmann payments finds ‘probable cause’ he broke ethics rules — Iowa senator resigns amid ethics probe: Des Moines Register politics editor Carol Hunter and Statehouse reporter Jason Noble discuss the resignation of Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Jason Noble / Des Moines Register:
BREAKING: Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson resigns after report finds he received money from Bachmann campaign

Discussion: Politico and Talking Points Memo

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 and Booman Tribune

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: The Plum Line, Arizona Republic and Booman Tribune

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

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Wonkblog, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hot Air and Twitchy

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: The Lonely Conservative, Politico and ThinkProgress

Sol Stern / City Journal:

The Closing of Diane Ravitch's Mind — Education writer and activist Diane Ravitch is very angry these days. She's convinced herself and her followers that elements of the American corporate elite are working to destroy the nation's public schools, the indispensable institution that has held …

Discussion: Eduwonk

Patrick Poole / The PJ Tatler:

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: McDonald's Employee Admits Being Paid $15 to Protest WW2 Veterans (UPDATED 2x) — 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 …