memeorandum: The shutdown just saved the world (Ezra Klein/Wonkblog)

7:05 PM ET, October 10, 2013

Top Items:

GOP's New Strategy: Avert Default But Keep Government Shut — Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Thursday that the House will move forward with a six-week debt limit extension after pitching the idea to his Republican conference during a closed-door meeting.

Discussion: American Prospect, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, The Dish, No More Mister Nice Blog and Shakesville

New York Times:

House G.O.P. Discusses Short-Term Fix on Debt Limit — WASHINGTON — House Republicans, looking for a way out of a budget standoff they began, will offer to President Obama at a White House meeting Thursday a plan to increase the debt limit through Nov. 22, in exchange for a promise to negotiate …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Wonkblog, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Prairie Weather and Calculated Risk

Damian Paletta / Washington Wire:

House Debt-Ceiling Plan Would Ban ‘Emergency’ Measures — WASHINGTON - The House Republican plan to extend the debt ceiling for six weeks would permanently ban the Treasury Department from using extraordinary measures to avoid default, congressional aides said.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Just Sink / The Hill:

White House: No budget talks until government reopens — The White House on Thursday said it was “willing to look at any proposal” to lift the debt ceiling but insisted President Obama will not engage in budget negotiations until the government reopens. — House Republicans are discussing …

Discussion: The Plum Line, Reuters and The Week

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Ted Cruz Backs House GOP's Temporary Debt-Limit Plan

Discussion: The Raw Story and Washington Monthly

Ben Domenech / The Federalist:
Boehner's Smart Debt Ceiling Play

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico and The Hill

James Lankford / USA Today:
Rep. Lankford: Republicans seek fairness, less debt

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Conservatives Clear The Way For Boehner's Six-Week Debt Limit Hike

Discussion: Roll Call, RedState, Hullabaloo and The Fix

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
GOP offers short-term debt-limit increase, but wants negotiations before ending shutdown

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Plum Line, Post Politics, The Fix, The Hill, Wonkblog, Los Angeles Times and Voices

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:
Carney: Obama ‘Happy’ That House Is Willing To Raise Debt Limit

Discussion: Daily Kos

Erick Erickson / RedState:

House GOP Preparing to Give Up — I'm being told by several sources that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are plotting to give up trying to either defund or delay Obamacare. — This comes at the same time the Obama administration admits it will be months before their Obamacare website …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Business Insider, The Lonely Conservative, The Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, Politico, neo-neocon, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, The Dish and Washington Post

Politico:

John Boehner's bet: Democrats will talk — Speaker John Boehner's latest gambit — to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks while leaving government shut down — isn't exactly a magic bullet. — It's a bet that President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders will want so desperately …

Discussion: CNN, National Review, Washington Examiner, NationalJournal.com, NewsBusters, ABC News, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, The Hill, New York Times, The Hill and The Impolitic

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

The House GOP's Little Rule Change That Guaranteed A Shutdown — Late on the night of Sept. 30, with the federal government just hours away from shutting down, House Republicans quietly made a small change to the House rules that blocked a potential avenue for ending the shutdown.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Balloon Juice

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

The shutdown just saved the world — There's nothing good about a government shutdown. But when this one began, a number of us welcomed it. A shutdown, we argued, made a breach of the debt ceiling less likely. Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal even gave the argument a hashtag: #TeamShutdown.

Discussion: Politico, National Review, Esquire, Daily Kos and No More Mister Nice Blog

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
New GOP strategy: Offer deal on debt limit, but keep shutdown fight going

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Hot Air, National Review, The Plum Line, Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh and The Lead with Jake Tapper

Jim Acosta / CNN:
Official: Obama will sign short term debt ceiling extension

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Gallup: Cruz's favorability rating plunges — Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) favorability rating has collapsed as the public has become more familiar with him, according to a Gallup survey released on Thursday. — The survey found that 26 percent have a favorable view of the Texas Republican, against 36 percent unfavorable.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senate GOP rallies around rival plan on debt ceiling, shutdown — Senate Republicans are unhappy with a House GOP plan to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks without funding the federal government. They are coalescing around their own proposal to pair a short-term debt-ceiling increase …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Americans Down on D.C. Leaders Since Shutdown Began

Discussion: Firedoglake, Post Politics, The New Civil Rights Movement, National Review, The Fix, The Raw Story, The Huffington Post, Conservative Intelligence …, Prairie Weather, The Week, The Agonist, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

Michael Kinsley / The New Republic:

Obama Should Just Give in to the Republicans — President Obama should give in. Yes, this mess is all the Republicans' fault. Yes, it's outrageous that they can hold the government hostage in order to reargue a law that's been voted on, signed, enacted, and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Taegan Goddard's …, Capitol Report and Shakesville

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

We're not gonna take it! Americans use 1st Amendment to storm shutdown barriers — Taking their lead from the veterans who first pushed through the barricades to visit the World War II Memorial, Americans nationwide are defying the federal government shutdown, tossing aside traffic cones …

Discussion: Hot Air

Matthew Daly / Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: Feds to Let States Pay to Open Parks

Discussion: CNN and Associated Press

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:
Insane Tourists Blatantly Defying The U.S. Government's Demands

Discussion: Wake up America and Hit & Run

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Scarborough: A NYT Editor Told Me Krugman's Column Is ‘Their Biggest Nightmare’ (VIDEO) — MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Thursday that a public editor at the New York Times considers liberal columnist Paul Krugman's work to be an ongoing “nightmare.” — During a segment on “Morning Joe …

Discussion: The Grumpy Economist, Balloon Juice, Shakesville, NewsBusters and Weekly Standard

Niall Ferguson / The Huffington Post:
Krugtron the Invincible, Part 3

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Salon, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite and msnbc.com

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:

Cory Booker's father, 76, dies — Newark Mayor Cory Booker's father died Thursday morning after battling to recover from a recent stroke. His death comes just days before the New Jersey Democrat faces voters in the state's Oct. 16 special Senate election.

Discussion: Politico

Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:
Steve Lonegan: Obama Will Cave On The Shutdown When I Win My Election

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Tim Mak / Washington Examiner:

John McCain regrets ‘wacko birds’ comment, worries about GOP infighting — SENATE REPUBLICAN PARTY TEA PARTY PENNAVE JOHN MCCAIN SEQUESTER — Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he's worried about the Republican Party's future and the infighting that is dividing it, calling efforts …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Taegan Goddard's …, The Daily Caller, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Amy Hollyfield / PolitiFact:

PolitiFact to launch PunditFact, checking pundits and media figures — PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website of the Tampa Bay Times, will soon launch PunditFact, a site dedicated to checking claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers and the hosts and guests of talk shows.

Discussion: TVNewser, Liberaland, Mediaite and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Harry J Enten / Guardian:

What the Virginia governor's race tells us about the 2014 midterms — Against trend, Democrat Terry McAuliffe is set to win. After running a ‘strong conservative’, Republicans should take a hint — I'm hesitant to read too much into elections that don't occur during the midterms or presidential election years.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Eric Trager / The New Republic:

Obama Just Made a Terrible Mistake on Egypt — In a certain sense, the Obama administration's decision to withhold much of the $1.3 billion in annual aid given to Egypt isn't surprising. U.S. law mandates cutting off aid to countries in which a coup has taken place, and the Egyptian military's ouster …

Discussion: WorldViews, The Dish, Jihad Watch, VodkaPundit and New York Times

Peter Baker / New York Times:

The Final Insult in the Bush-Cheney Marriage — In the final days of his presidency, George W. Bush sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, chewing gum and staring into the distance as two White House lawyers briefed him on the possible last-minute pardon of I. Lewis Libby. — “Do you think he did it?”

Discussion: emptywheel

Barry Petchesky / Deadspin:

Rick Reilly's American Indian Father-In-Law Says Reilly Misquoted Him — Last month, ESPN's Rick Reilly came out in support of the Redskins' name. The backbone of his argument? Father-in-law Bob Burns, a Blackfeet elder, who supposedly said he doesn't care about the team name.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, City Desk, Mediaite and CBS DC

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

The “Grand” Perspective — As we all go down our various rabbit-holes in trying to understand the fiscal crisis situation, much of which seems to be playing out in John Boehner's nicotine-soaked brain, it's appropriate to step back and look at it all from a broader perspective.

Discussion: Booman Tribune