memeorandum: HealthCare.gov contractor had high confidence but low success (Washington Post)

12:10 PM ET, November 23, 2013

Top Items:

Leigh Ann Caldwell / CNN:

And credit for the nuclear option goes to... Washington (CNN) — What was known as the nuclear option yesterday is known as the Reid Rule today. Time will only tell if the Reid Rule is productive or destructive. But we'll leave that to the historians. — As for how it became the Reid rule …

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Reaction

Andrew Cohen / The Atlantic Online:

The Filibuster's Demise Is Great News for Judicial Confirmation Hearings — Knowing obstruction was an option, senators have long had pillow fights with nominees. That's almost certainly going to change. — The phrase “nuclear option” always has been terribly misleading as a way of describing …

Discussion: Daily Kos

John Fund / National Review:

Reid's Law — It may sound like congressional “inside baseball,” but yesterday's decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to limit the power of the minority to block nominees for Executive Branch and most judicial vacancies is momentous. Ezra Klein, a liberal Washington Post columnist …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Mother Jones:
3 Charts Explain Why Democrats Went Nuclear on the Filibuster

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Liberaland

John Podhoretz / New York Post:
The hatchetmen win: Harry Reid's muscle move

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review and Constitution Society

Washington Post:

HealthCare.gov contractor had high confidence but low success — At 9 a.m. on Aug. 22, a team of federal health officials sat down in a Baltimore conference room with at least a dozen employees of CGI Federal, the company with the main contract to build the online federal health insurance marketplace.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

New York Times:

Tension and Flaws Before Health Website Crash — WASHINGTON — On a sultry day in late August, a dozen staff members of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gathered at the agency's Baltimore headquarters with managers from the major contractors building HealthCare …

Discussion: Eschaton

Dana Davidsen / CNN:

Weekly addresses: GOP sticks to health care, Obama pivots to the economy — (CNN) - While Republicans continued on the anti-Obamacare offensive, President Barack Obama largely pivoted away from the troubled rollout of Healthcare.gov, instead focusing his address on the economy.

Discussion: Politico and Hot Air

CNN:
2015 Obamacare signup delayed

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Week, The Heritage Foundation, American Spectator and Fox News

Z. Byron Wolf / CNN:
Extended: Obamacare enrollment deadline for January 1 coverage

Discussion: Reuters

Rosie Taylor / Daily Mail:

Children of 8 are ‘racist’ if they miss Islam trip: School's threatening letter to parents is met with outrage — Parents were ordered to send their children to a workshop on Islam or have them labelled as racist for the rest of their school career. — They were sent a letter warning …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Claudia Grisales / MyStatesman.com:

State Rep. Drew Darby charged with taking weapon to Austin airport — Texas State Rep. Drew Darby is facing a felony charge after he attempted to take a weapon through a security screening at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport this month, according to court documents.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway and Talking Points Memo

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Katie Couric Negotiating ABC News Exit (Exclusive) — UPDATED: Couric is set to exit her role as ABC News special correspondent early as she nears a deal for an interview show on Yahoo. — Less than three years after joining ABC in a lucrative and wide-ranging deal that included …

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, Business Insider, Politico, TVNewser and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

In Their Panic, Democrats Become Reckless Gamblers — Prospect theory, a predictive model of economic behavior, stipulates that when a person begins to come to terms with increasingly likely losses, they become risk-takers. Losses sting, the theory asserts, more than gains reward.

Discussion: Hot Air

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Rush Limbaugh uses rape analogy on filibuster — Rush Limbaugh on Friday used a rape analogy as he told listeners about the Senate's historic filibuster rule change, touching off an immediate and intense backlash to comments that were called “offensive” and “despicable.”

Discussion: Althouse, Rush Limbaugh, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, Hullabaloo and CNN

Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:

FCC sees backlash after proposing to allow in-flight cellphone calls on planes — Air travel may get a lot chattier with a new federal proposal to allow cellphone calls on airplanes. — The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it will consider rules that would allow air travelers …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Week

petitions.whitehouse.gov:
Instruct the FCC and FAA that cell phone use is not appropriate on flights

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air and New Day

Theo Balcomb / History:

Moved By Kennedy's Death, The Boston Symphony Played On … A visit to the symphony: It's often a solitary experience that can, in truly important moments, become communal — as it did in Boston on Nov. 22, 1963. — At 2 p.m., the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Friday afternoon concert began like any other.

Discussion: Firedoglake and Crooks and Liars