memeorandum: Visits to federal health-care Web site off 88% (Juliet Eilperin/Washington Post)

11:20 AM ET, October 16, 2013

Top Items:

House to vote first on Senate plan — The House will vote first on an emerging Senate proposal to open government and lift the debt ceiling, a move that would expedite bipartisan legislation developed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Discussion: Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, Wonkblog, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway, The Week, The Hinterland Gazette, Reuters and The Hill

Wall Street Journal:

It's time to wrap up this comedy of political errors. — The Beltway budget melodrama rolls on to its predictable and dreary end, with both sides now split over increasingly small differences. None of this is worth a partial government shutdown, much less the risk of a debt default, and both sides are looking like losers.

Discussion: ABC News, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, NPR, The Huffington Post, Roll Call, Questions and Observations and The Hill

Jonathan Strong / National Review:

Stunned Republicans React to Canceled Vote — Referring to his plan to preemptively send the Senate a House-passed bill, Speaker John Boehner told his conference this morning that he'd “rather throw a grenade than catch a grenade.” But with his right-wing troops abandoning him again it was the speaker left holding the bomb.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, News Desk, Washington Post, The American Conservative, Hot Air, Taegan Goddard's … and Outside the Beltway

Mario Trujillo / The Hill:

Ayotte urges Cruz to allow quick vote in Senate on debt deal — Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Wednesday urged her GOP colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) to allow a Senate budget deal to hit the floor without delay. — Ayotte said delaying a Senate bill with procedural tactics would have little point.

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:

Senate Leaders ‘Very Close’ to Debt, Shutdown Deal … With less than a day remaining before the debt limit is reached, Congress will need to work feverishly today to pass compromise legislation that would extend the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown.

Discussion: NBCNews, CNN, Hot Air, Mother Jones, Shakesville and ABC News

Josh Barro / Business Insider:

House Republicans Show Themselves To Be Dangerously Incompetent, Again — House Republican leaders canceled plans to call a vote Tuesday evening on a Republican plan to raise the debt limit and reopen the government. They couldn't round up enough Republican votes to pass it.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, Washington Examiner, The American Conservative, Talking Points Memo, The Week, The Moderate Voice and Daily Kos

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Carl Bernstein: GOP leadership ‘cancerous’ — Journalist and author Carl Bernstein said Wednesday that Republican Party leadership is “cancerous” and has put the United States at risk by letting the tea party lead the GOP. — “The Republican Party today has become a rabid organization from the top down.

Politico:
Markets expect a deal — they better get one

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

TIME:
John Boehner's Bad Night Clears a Path for a Deal

Discussion: Reuters, The American Conservative, The Fix and Business Insider

Kelly Ayotte / CNN:
Republican senator wants Cruz to stay out of the way in debt vote

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Breaking: Boehner to take vote on Senate compromise 1st, pass it with Dem votes

Discussion: Instapundit

Politico:
Senate leaders finalizing deal

Discussion: American Prospect, Bloomberg, Crooks and Liars, Daniel W. Drezner, NBCNews, The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, The Raw Story, Hit & Run, CNN, New York Times and Mediaite

Politico:
Warring GOP factions sink John Boehner plan

Discussion: Liberaland, Washington Wire, The Huffington Post and NPR

Houston Chronicle:

Why we miss Kay Bailey Hutchison — Things surely would look far different with Sen. Hutchison in office in the nation's capital — Does anyone else miss Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison? — We're not sure how much difference one person could make in the toxic, chaotic, hyperpartisan atmosphere in Washington …

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, The Hill and Mediaite

ThinkProgress:

Houston Chronicle Yanks Ted Cruz Endorsement — As the federal government enters its sixteenth day of shutdown and stands just hours away from defaulting on the national debt, the largest newspaper in Texas has pulled its endorsement of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette and theGrio

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Exclusive: Greenwald exits Guardian for new Omidyar media venture — (Reuters) - Glenn Greenwald, who has made headlines around the world with his reporting on U.S. electronic surveillance programs, is leaving the Guardian newspaper to join a new media venture funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar …

Discussion: The Verge, Guardian, Towleroad News #gay, Taylor Marsh and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald to leave Britain's Guardian newspaper

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Poynter, TechPresident, BuzzFeed and Daily Kos, more at Mediagazer »

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:
Exclusive: Glenn Greenwald Will Leave Guardian To Create New News Organization

Discussion: New York Times, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, Hit & Run, Gawker, BBC, The Verge, Politico, The Hill, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, naked capitalism, The Raw Story and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

First Read / firstread.nbcnews.com:

First Thoughts: The end appears near — The end in this shutdown/debt-ceiling fight appears near (and we mean it this time)... Predicting the fallout... Can Boehner continue to lead?... The GOP's lost year... What's dysfunctional isn't Washington — it's the House... And it's Booker vs. Lonegan in New Jersey.

Tom Cohen / CNN:
Will they make it? Senate rushing deal before debt ceiling deadline

Discussion: KTLA 5

The Lead with Jake Tapper:
Rep. Dent predicts Boehner to bring pending Senate deal to House floor

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:

Visits to federal health-care Web site off 88% — The number of visitors to the federal government's HealthCare.gov Web site dropped 88 percent between Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, according to a new analysis of America's online use, while less than half of 1 percent of the site's visitors successfully enrolled …

Discussion: VodkaPundit, Compete Pulse, National Review, Kantar, Weasel Zippers and Mediaite

Juliet Eilperin / Post Politics:
Analysis: Obamacare glitches scare off many Web site users

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Free Beacon, Weasel Zippers, National Review and The Daily Caller

Ajc Blogs: &lsquo:

Hearsay from Hillary Clinton: On Joe Biden and the Osama bin Laden raid — Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton was in town today. A few Secret Squirrels, and some not so secret, agreed to be our sources, given that her speech to the National Association of Convenience Stores was encapsulated by a cone of silence.

Discussion: The Fix, Politico, Outside the Beltway, Taylor Marsh, Right Turn, CNN and Weasel Zippers

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Sorry, Kids. We Ate It All. — Eventually this shutdown crisis will end. And eventually the two parties will make another stab at a deal on taxes, investments and entitlements. But there's one outcome from such negotiations that I can absolutely guarantee: Seniors …

Discussion: American Prospect

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

As Good as It Gets? — ObamaCare supporters go through the stages of grief. — In a much-discussed post titled “Five Thoughts on the ObamaCare Disaster,” the Washington Post's Ezra Klein manages to cycle through the first three of Elisabeth Kübler Ross's five stages of grief: — • Denial.

Discussion: Infowars, CNN and The Reaction

Rick Newman / Yahoo Finance:

Washington Bickering Has Killed Nearly 1 Million Jobs — It's just a “partial” government shutdown. Threats of a U.S. government default are overblown. The federal government is too involved in the economy, anyway. — These are some of the excuses used to justify repeated standoffs in Washington over federal spending.

Discussion: Liberaland and democrats.com

John Schwartz / New York Times:

Judge in Landmark Case Disavows Support for Voter ID — It is the kind of thought that rarely passes the lips of a member of the federal judiciary: I was wrong. — But there was Richard A. Posner, one of the most distinguished judges in the land and a member of the United States Court …

Discussion: BillMoyers.com

Carl Campanile / New York Post:

Obama adviser ‘architect’ of showdown: author — President Obama's top adviser Valerie Jarrett was behind a plan to force a showdown with Republicans over ObamaCare as part of a strategy to regain Democratic control of the House next year, claims author Ed Klein.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and “The Lid”

Lacey Donohue / Gawker:

Joe Lhota Doesn't Want To Be Lumped In With National Republicans — The majority of Tuesday night's mayoral debate between Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota was spent covering the usual topics: charter schools, taxes, small businesses, well-paying jobs, the income gap, and stop and frisk policies.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette

Matt Vespa / CNSNews:

Shutdown: Bush's Fault? — MRCTV's Dan Joseph had a question on his mind that he couldn't shake: who bears the brunt of the blame for the government shutdown? Who really is responsible for the mess we're in right now? Is it President Obama or former President George W. Bush?

Discussion: Independent Journal Review