memeorandum: Handicappers: Shutdown Puts More Than 17 GOP Seats in Play (Alex Seitz-Wald/NationalJournal.com)

12:55 PM ET, October 18, 2013

Top Items:

We Won't Back Down on ObamaCare — Fighting a law that is unfair, unworkable and unaffordable is reasonable and necessary. — Now that the government shutdown has ended and the president has preserved ObamaCare for the time being, it's worth explaining why my organization, the Heritage Foundation …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, The Hill, Balloon Juice, The Week, Heritage Action for America, First Read, The Heritage Foundation, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, Politico and The Hill

Politico:

Donors' frustration with GOP mounts — Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into losing campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they're appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior …

Discussion: The Week and Taegan Goddard's …

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Harry Reid On Vitter And His Obamacare Amendment: ‘He Just Is Not Playing With A Full Deck’ — WASHINGTON — As the showdown over raising the nation's debt limit and funding the government entered its final week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could sense “desperation” seeping into the Republican Party.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Weasel Zippers

Politico:

Anatomy of a shutdown — House Speaker John Boehner just wanted to sneak out of the White House for a smoke. — But President Barack Obama pulled him aside for a grilling. Obama wanted to know why they were in the second day of a government shutdown that the speaker had repeatedly and publicly pledged to avoid.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and ABC News

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

At Al Smith Dinner, Colbert Doesn't Spare Politicians — When the comedian Stephen Colbert took to the dais on Thursday for his keynote speech at the Al Smith white-tie charity dinner, the annual gathering of New York's Roman Catholic elite, he immediately flashed a sly glance at Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, sitting a few seats away.

Discussion: Politico, Whispers in the Loggia, The Week, Capital New York, Politicker, Post Politics, Gothamist and The Dish

Scott Conroy / Real Clear Politics:

Brian Schweitzer Mulling 2016 Presidential Bid — Add another name to the short list of Democrats seriously considering a run for president in 2016. — In an interview with RealClearPolitics, former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer indicated that he may launch a White House bid …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Althouse, The Hill and Booman Tribune

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Brian Schweitzer eyes 2016, makes anti-Hillary Clinton case

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

The Truth About the Obamacare Rollout — The feds botched the website. But the states are doing much better. — The federal government is open and paying its bills, which means you can start looking at the other big story from the past few weeks: The startup of Obamacare's marketplaces.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and National Review

Yuval Levin / National Review:
Assessing the Exchanges

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air, The Dish and The Strata-Sphere

Wall Street Journal:

Health Website Woes Widen as Insurers Get Wrong Data — Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far.

Discussion: The Verge, National Review, Weasel Zippers, Health Care Policy …, The Lonely Conservative and Corrente

MarketWatch:
Obamacare woes widen as insurers get wrong data

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and The PJ Tatler

Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:

McConnell challenger nabs big endorsement — Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) primary challenger got a boost Friday with the endorsement of a prominent national conservative group, the Senate Conservatives Fund. — The endorsement of Matt Bevin comes just days after the fund blasted McConnell …

Discussion: Politico

Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:
Ted Cruz Not Looking for ‘99 New Friends’ in the Senate

Discussion: Hot Air, PoliticusUSA, Taegan Goddard's …, ABC News and Patterico's Pontifications

Sam Youngman / Lexington Herald-Leader:
Sarah Palin suggests she will get involved in Kentucky Senate race

Discussion: Post Politics

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Cory Booker Plans To Start Marrying Same-Sex Couples At 12:01 A.M. Monday — The senator-elect is slated to marry the couples in the wake of a trial-court ruling requiring marriage equality in the Garden State. The only question is whether the New Jersey Supreme Court will put same-sex couples' weddings …

Discussion: CNN, Taylor Marsh, Liberaland and ThinkProgress

Susan K. Livio / New Jersey Online:
N.J. health department says no marriage licenses for same-sex couples until court rules

Discussion: ThinkProgress and GLAAD

The Atlantic Online:

How the GOP Slowly Went Insane — The current moment in politics came about slowly, not suddenly, but it doesn't make it any less of a national emergency. — When I was a kid, all I knew about Michael Jackson was that he was crazy. He had a monkey named Bubbles and some kind of oxygen chamber …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE

David Wasserman / The Cook Political Report:

October House Overview: GOP Risk Factors — Earlier this year, a senior House Democrat ribbed our pessimistic forecast for their 2014 prospects by suggesting, “Why can't you just say 'Democrats can't win a majority in the House, but Republicans can lose one?'” That admonition has never seemed more appropriate.

Discussion: Business Insider, PoliticusUSA and The Raw Story

Alex Seitz-Wald / NationalJournal.com:
Handicappers: Shutdown Puts More Than 17 GOP Seats in Play

Discussion: The Fix, Liberal Values and Taegan Goddard's …

Per Kaplan / Gretawire:

This is what happened ..... Click to read — From FNC CHAD PERGRAM: — Urgent: House Stenographer says Holy Spirit woke her up at night to deliver message to the House — Karrah Kaplan spoke with the husband of House stenographer Dianne Reidy last night. There's an emailed statement here from Dan Reidy.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, BizPac Review, Mediaite, Towleroad News #gay, ABC News, The Hill, Gawker and SoundCloud

Geoff Earle / New York Post:
Long hours made stenographer snap

Discussion: Liberaland, BizPac Review and ABC News

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Damage Done — The government is reopening, and we didn't default on our debt. Happy days are here again, right? — Well, no. For one thing, Congress has only voted in a temporary fix, and we could find ourselves going through it all over again in a few months.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, DownWithTyranny! and Seeing the Forest

Alan Cowell / New York Times:

Saudi Arabia Rejects Security Council Seat — LONDON — Assailing what it called double standards at the United Nations, Saudi Arabia took the surprising step Friday of declining an invitation to take a rotating seat on the Security Council just one day after it was chosen to join the body for a two-year term.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Monkey Cage, Outside the Beltway and UN Dispatch

Angus McDowall / Reuters:
Saudi Arabia, angered over Mideast, declines Security Council seat

Discussion: VodkaPundit

Bloomberg:

Republican Civil War Erupts: Business Groups v. Tea Party — A battle for control of the Republican Party has erupted as an emboldened Tea Party moved to oust senators who voted to reopen the government while business groups mobilized to defeat allies of the small-government movement.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, The Week, The Atlantic Online, Hot Air and Independent Journal Review

Guardian: Republican defeat: the Tea Party should be over | Editorial

Charlie Cook / NationalJournal.com:

Conservatives, Get a Grip on Reality! — Those who thought shutting down the government was a winning strategy should have their heads examined. — Here's a question for conservatives and Republicans: Going into the 2012 Election Day, or even in the last few days before Election Day, did you think Mitt Romney was going to win?

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Redskins and reason — In re the (Washington) Redskins. Should the name be changed? — I don't like being lectured by sportscasters about ethnic sensitivity. Or advised by the president of the United States about changing team names. Or blackmailed by tribal leaders playing the race card.

Discussion: Gawker, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money and TheBlaze.com

Massimo Calabresi / TIME:

Ted Cruz Failed To Disclose Ties To Caribbean Holding Company — An old college friendship led to financial entanglement with a Jamaican private equity firm and a British Virgin Islands holding company. Neither was disclosed during his 2012 campaign. — Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Taegan Goddard's …

Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:

How to Win in Virginia as a Liberal Democrat — Unlike Mark Warner and Tim Kaine before him, Terry McAuliffe is touting a distinctly left-leaning social agenda. — No one would confuse Terry McAuliffe with a policy wonk. The Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Virginia is more likely to be found slapping backs than cracking books.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh and Washington Wire

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Republicans reassess after shutdown debacle — The GOP establishment has embarked, once again, on a round of soul-searching. But this time, the question is: What will it take to save the Republicans from the self-destructive impulses of the tea party movement?

Discussion: NewsBusters and The Caucus

Elizabeth Llorente / Fox News:

They're Not Going To Take It Anymore: New Generation Of Immigrant Advocates Take Radical Approach — The frustration, say immigration advocates, is reaching a fever pitch. — That is why, many say, recent weeks have seen activists use chains and pipes to tie themselves to the tires of buses …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers