The Commentariat -- Oct. 3, 2013

All Fucked Up

My simple message today is, call a vote ... let every individual member of Congress make up their own minds. -- Barack Obama, in Maryland today

A grammatical catastrophe, but a righteous appeal. -- Constant Weader ...

Also, A Message to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (RTP-Ind.):One House Republican said, 'We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is.' That was a quote.... Think about that. You have already gotten the opportunity to serve the American people. There's no higher honor than that. You've already gotten the opportunity to help businesses like this one, workers like these. So the American people aren't in the mood to give you a goodie bag to go with it. -- Barack Obama, same speech

... President Obama spoke this morning at a small company in Maryland which is affected by the shutdown:

Neville C. Boehner. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "The speaker's closest allies say he cannot afford to defy those on his right flank by ending the shutdown with largely Democratic votes. Doing so would undermine his position among his members going into negotiations with the White House and Democrats over raising the federal debt limit, which Boehner and his leadership team regard as more critical than the impasse on government funding. Coming up empty-handed for conservatives on both would have broader ramifications. Republicans who support the speaker argue that if he is going to antagonize the conservatives in his caucus, it would make more sense to do so on the debt-ceiling debate rather than on the funding of the government." CW: "... going into negotiations ... over raising the federal debt limit"? Yo, Boner, there aren't going to be any negotiations....

We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is. -- Rep. Marlin Stutzman (RTP-Ind.) (via Greg Sargent)

      ... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "And there you have it. The part that's most important isn't that Stutzman doesn't know what they want, because I think all he's saying is that it could be any number of things. Maybe it could be a delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, or maybe tossing some people off food stamps, or maybe providing Tea Party caucus members with a list of phone numbers of uninsured poor people, so they could call them up, shout 'Get a job, deadbeat!' and hang up -- whatever. But what really matters is the part about being disrespected.... A surrender is humiliating. As far as they're concerned, whatever the resolution of the shutdown is, what matters is that it allows them to feel like they won, or at the very least to save face." ...

'We're more united in the conference now than we've ever been,' said Rep. Blake Farenthold, a second-term lawmaker. Eighteen months ago, the speaker 'couldn't pick me out of a lineup,' Farenthold said. 'He now blows me kisses.'

     ... CW: Yeah, and this picture of you in your jammies with an underaged drinking "companion" (the young lady on the left) should have guaranteed you a spot in a police lineup, Blakey boy:

That attractive fellow on the right is the Hon. Congressman. Yes, my fellow Americans, this is one of a couple of dozen yahoos whom the Speaker of the House so fears that he would bring down the government & international financial markets to appease them.

... Partying Like It's 2011 All Over Again. Robert Costa of the National Review: "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." ...

... ** Steve Benen: "There is no scenario in which House Republicans will accept concessions of any kind to reach a compromise. Indeed, it's the whole point of extortion politics -- GOP lawmakers threaten to harm Americans on purpose to ensure that compromises are never necessary for them. The 'concession,' in Republicans' minds, is letting the hostage go without pulling the trigger." Read the whole post. ...

... Kristina Peterson of the Wall Street Journal: "A coalition of centrist House Republicans is lobbying House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) to find ways to end the partial government shutdown, lawmakers in the group said Wednesday. Some members in the group of GOP lawmakers met with Mr. Boehner twice on Wednesday, looking for ways to ease the budget impasse, including by passing a short-term spending bill stripped of all demands to change the federal health-care law." ...

... Manu Raju of Politico: "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 in the Senate's Mansfield Room, Republican after Republican pressed Cruz to explain how he would propose to end the bitter budget impasse with Democrats, according to senators who attended the meeting. A defensive Cruz had no clear plan to force an end to the shutdown -- or explain how he would defund Obamacare, as he has demanded all along, sources said.... A number of Republican senators privately blame the Texas freshman for contributing to the mess their party finds itself in. And now that they're in it, they say it's up to Cruz to help find a solution." ...

What the speaker has to accept is yes for an answer. He said that he wanted to go to conference. He sent us something from the House, so I thought we would throw him a lifeline. I said, 'Fine, we'll go to conference; all we want you to do is open the government.... We'll talk about anything you want to talk about. And he says no. -- Harry Reid, after meeting with President Obama & other leaders Wednesday evening

... Debbi Wilgoren, et al., of the Washington Post: "The top four leaders of both parties from both houses said no progress had been made after an hour and a half session in the Oval Office without any staff. After the meeting, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said the president 'reiterated tonight he will not negotiate.'" ...

... Jackie Calmes & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "President Obama summoned the Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress to the White House for an afternoon meeting Wednesday, the second day of the government shutdown, to urge the passage of measures financing the government and increasing the nation's borrowing limit -- without add-ons like a limitation on his health-insurance law." ...

... Alan Fram of the AP: "The shutdown stalemate is already rattling investors. Stock markets in the U.S. and overseas faded Wednesday, and Europe's top central banker, Mario Draghi, called the shutdown 'a risk if protracted.' Leading financial executives met with Obama, and one, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, said politicians should not use a potential default 'as a cudgel.'" ...

... Here's a related AP story -- by Pan Pylas -- about the effects of the shutdown & impending debt default. ...

I think it's fair to say, during the course of my presidency, I have bent over backwards to work with the Republican Party and have purposely kept my rhetoric down. Am I exasperated? Absolutely, I'm exasperated. Because this is entirely unnecessary. -- President Obama, in a CNBC interview Wednesday

... Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "President Obama would veto any piecemeal bill funding only parts of the federal government and not resolving the whole government shutdown, the White House said Tuesday. The president and the Senate have been clear that they won't accept this kind of game-playing, and if these bills were to come to the president's desk he would veto them, White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement...."

New York Times photo.

Stood with House Dems on Senate-passed CR that honors our responsibilities and ends GOPshutdown. -- Nancy Pelosi, tweet

... Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "In the hours since the government shut down, House Republicans have slowly but steadily been coming forward to say they're ready to pass a bill to fund the government with no strings attached. As of Wednesday afternoon, the number of those Republicans hit 19 -- surpassing the magic 17 votes needed to pass a clean funding bill if all 200 Democrats stick together and team up with them. Of course, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would have to be willing to put that bill on the floor in the first place. But if he did, the votes appear to be there for passage, at which point the bill would sail through the Senate and be signed by President Barack Obama, ending the shutdown." Bendery lists those House Republicans who say they are willing to vote for a clean CR. ...

... Byron York of the Washington Examiner: "... a large majority of the House's 232 Republicans, plus a large majority of its 200 Democrats, would likely support a 'clean' continuing resolution to fund the government but not defund, delay, or limit Obamacare. If House Speaker John Boehner were to bring such a bill to the floor, it would probably pass with a majority of Republican as well as Democratic votes. But Boehner doesn't do it." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "I saw this movie before during the Impeachment pseudo-crisis. The fabled GOP moderates never appear. But could it really be that the number of representatives driving this train is, on the high side, between 50 and 80 people? If that's true, Boehner's position is dramatically more craven than many of us have imagined. And the dysfunction is greater than at least I had imagined." ...

... Phony Gestures. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "... dozens of members of the House and Senate who plan to refund or donate their pay during an impasse that congressional leaders are warning could last several weeks. Depending on the lawmaker, the money will go back into U.S. Treasury coffers to help pay down the debt, be placed in escrow or donated to the benefit of military veterans and local food banks.... While they say it's an issue of fairness and an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with hundreds of thousands of government employees sent home without pay, the speed with which some lawmakers advertised their acts of political penance appeared designed to blunt public outrage over the impasse." ...

... Michael Ruane & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "At the closed-off World War II Memorial, two days of assaults by aged veterans prompted the National Park Service to announce that they had legal right to be there ... and would not be barred in the future." ...

... Frank Rich, terrific on the shutdown & debt ceiling, informative on the fizzlement of the Hillary movies. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... Gail Collins mocks Congress. ...

... Contributor P. D. Pepe recommends this piece by John Judis of the New Republic. Judis attempts to show the historical thread from the Calhoun nullfiers of the early 19th century to the 1930s wingers to today's radical Tea Party. Judis is writing a blogpost, so his gloss can be forgiven, but it is a gloss in which he ignores some important "buts." He is on stronger footing, I think, in his prescription for how the country could eventually get out of this mess without resorting to civil war.

** Republicans Are Despicable. Sabrina Tavernise & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times. Because they live in states largely controlled by Republicans that have declined to participate in a vast expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor, they are among the eight million Americans who are impoverished, uninsured and ineligible for help." P.S. You can think the Supreme Court for this. The conservatives on the Court, joined by Elena Kagan & Stephen Breyer, forced the feds to make state participation optional. ...

... This interactive map shows where the poor & uninsured live. "The 26 Republican-dominated states not participating in an expansion of Medicaid are home to a disproportionate share of the nation's poorest uninsured residents. Eight million will be stranded without insurance." ...

... Juliet Williams & Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "Overloaded websites and jammed phone lines frustrated consumers for a second day as they tried to sign up for health insurance under the nation's historic health care overhaul. That was putting pressure on the federal government and the states that are running their own insurance exchanges to fix the problems amid strong demand for the private insurance plans.... The delays ... offered one good sign for President Barack Obama and supporters of his signature domestic policy achievement, demonstrating what appeared to be exceptionally high interest in the new system. But the problems also could dampen enthusiasm for the law as Republicans use it as a rallying cry to keep most of the federal government closed." ...

... "What do you agree with, ObamaCare or the Affordable Care Act?":

Charles Pierce reminds us of who the Republican base is. Yeah, they're pretty base. Pierce concludes, "The reign of morons began with the triumph of bullshit." Pierce does not let the press off the hook.

Kimberly Dozier & Stephen Braun of the AP: "Top U.S. intelligence officials are revealing more about their spying in an effort to defend the National Security Agency from charges that it has invaded the privacy of Americans on a mass scale. Yet the latest disclosure -- the NSA tried to track Americans' cellphone locations -- has only added to the concerns of lawmakers. NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander told Congress on Wednesday that his spy agency ran tests in 2010 and 2011 to see if it was technically possible to gather U.S. cell-site data, which can show where a cellphone user traveled. The information was never used, Alexander said, and the testing was reported to congressional intelligence committees. Alexander also defended his agency, denying reports that it has mined Americans' social media." ...

... Nicole Perlroth & Scott Shane of the New York Times on the demise of Lavabit, an encrypted Internet service. In its efforts to locate Edward Snowden, a Lavabit user, the FBI demanded that Lavabit's owner & creator, Ladar Levison, turn over all of his encryption code. Under a court order, Levison eventually complied, but he shut down Lavabit the same day, an act the FBI claimed "fell just short of a criminal act." CW: If Levison's version of the story is true -- that the FBI demanded "the passwords, encryption keys and computer code that would essentially allow the government untrammeled access to the protected messages of all his customers" -- not just the encryption keys for Snowden -- I think the FBI went way too far. As Perlroth & Shane write, "Mr. Levison's case shows how law enforcement officials can use legal tools to pry open messages, no matter how well protected."

News Ledes

CNN: "A hurricane watch is in effect for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast after Tropical Storm Karen formed in the southeastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday."

Washington Post: "A woman with a 1-year-old girl in her car was fatally shot by police near the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, after a chase through the heart of Washington.... The car was registered to Miriam Carey, 34, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Conn., law enforcement officials said, adding that they believed Carey was the driver. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said that the driver tried to breach two Washington landmarks and that the incident was not an accident. But officials also said it did not appear to part of any larger or organized terrorist plot."

New York Times: "The United States and Japan agreed on Thursday to broaden their security alliance, expanding Japan's role while maintaining an American military presence. The deal underscored the two countries' efforts to respond to growing challenges from China and North Korea in a time of budget constraints."

New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry, in his first remarks about Iran since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned the United States to be wary of talks with the country, said on Thursday that the United States would negotiate with Tehran only if it provided proof that it would not pursue nuclear defense programs."

The Commentariat -- Oct. 2, 2013

David Jackson of USA Today: "President Obama has shortened a trip to Asia because of the government shutdown, telling the leaders of Malaysia and the Philippines he will not be traveling to those countries. Obama is still scheduled to leave Saturday night for a pair of Asian economic summits in Indonesia and Brunei -- at least for now." ...

... Pete Kasperowicz of the Hill: "The House on Tuesday night rejected three appropriations resolutions that would have funded the District of Columbia, veterans programs and national parks, after House Republicans set them up in a way that required Democratic support for passage.... Republicans brought up the resolutions under a suspension of House rules, which required a two-thirds majority vote." ...

     ... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "To many Senate Republicans, the House conservatives' position has become mystifying. In a meeting of Senate Republicans, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee rose to ask how the party would respond if it controlled the White House and the Senate and a Democratic House insisted it would not finance the government unless Washington rolled back laws hampering unions." ...

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "House leaders are presenting to their rank and file a plan to bring to the floor spending bills to fund veterans' programs, the National Park Service and federally funded services in Washington.... But that plan, like all the others that House Republicans have sent to the Senate, appears dead-on-arrival. 'Ted Cruz is going to pick his favorite federal agencies to open? Come on,' said Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.... Among the [Congressional] rank and file, more and more Republicans are saying they believe they have no cards left to play." ...

... The Orange Man Has Two Faces. John Bresnahan of Politico: "... House Speaker John Boehner stood on the House floor Monday and called on his colleagues to vote for a bill banning a 'so-called exemption' that lawmakers and staffers receive for their health insurance.... Boehner ... [was] seeking to prohibit members of Congress and Capitol Hill aides from getting thousands of dollars in subsidies for their health insurance as they join Obamacare-mandated insurance exchanges. Yet behind-the-scenes, Boehner and his aides worked for months with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and others, to save these very same, long-standing subsidies, according to documents and e-mails provided to Politico." Boehner & his aides went to extraordinary lengths to cover up the Speaker's involvement in obtaining the subsidies. ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: " This isn't just a embarrassing disclosure for Boehner, though it is that. It's more evidence, if you need any, that the sudden claim of House Republicans that they're just offering some ideas that the two parties should compromise on, and that Democrats have mysteriously decided to shut the government down instead of negotiating, is a complete crock." ...

... CW: AND this should -- but won't -- be the nail in the coffin of claims that Republicans are fiscal conservatives. Jeanna Smialek & Ian Katz of Bloomberg News: "A partial shutdown of the federal government will cost the U.S. at least $300 million a day in lost economic output at the start, according to IHS Inc. While that is a small fraction of the country's $15.7 trillion economy, the daily impact of a shutdown is likely to accelerate if it continues as it depresses confidence and spending by businesses and consumers." The report doesn't touch on the cost to taxpayers of shutting down, then gearing up agencies -- not just a matter of turning off the light switch at the stroke of midnight October 1, then turning it back on whenever Republicans choose to allow the government to function again. ...

... Ezra Klein interviews Robert Costa of the National Review to try to get a perspective of what's going on in the minds of Boehner & the Crazy Caucus. Pretty illuminating (assuming you can use words like "illuminating" in a graf that features the dim bulbs in the House GOP): Costa: "What we're seeing is the collapse of institutional Republican power." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein: "If in fact 175 House Republicans were actually eager to end this thing without a shutdown, and Boehner refused to bring it to the floor because he feared that the 30-60 would cost him his job, then the responsibility lies mainly with him.... But I just don't believe it.... The Speaker is elected by Republicans to do what they want -- and as far as I'm concerned he's probably doing just that.... The main responsibility here is the bulk of the Republican conference. Not the guy acting on their behalf." ...

... CW: Bernstein makes a plausible case, but I still think Boehner is callng the shots. According to some reporting, when a group of about 25 of the Less-Crazy Caucus decided to vote against Plan C or D or whatever Monday night, Boehner went back & talked all but two of them out of it. He said he knew what he was doing, & the Less-Crazies went along with him. They're conservatives, you know. They don't like to go out on a limb. This bit of evidence suggests that Boehner is a leader in fact as well as in name. He is leading these malleable guys around by the nose. I could be wrong. ...

... James Downie of the Washington Post: "Ted Cruz and Co. refuse to leave the shop until they've stamped their feet and screamed as much as possible. All this would be bad enough if a shutdown was the biggest harm that these spoiled brats and their far-right enablers could inflict on the country. But it is looking ever more likely that Republicans ... will make ending the shutdown part of the debt-ceiling negotiations, thus threatening what President Obama accurately described as an 'economic shutdown' as well. In other words, having lost at the ballot box and in the courts, Republicans will take our economy hostage to undercut the law of the land." ...

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. -- Abraham Lincoln, to Southerners, February 1860

One faction, of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, shut down major parts of the government -- all because they didn't like one law.... As long as I am President, I will not give in to reckless demands by some in the Republican Party to deny affordable health insurance to millions of hardworking Americans. -- Barack Obama, October 1, 2013

And I laughed when people compared Obama to Lincoln. In fact, both of them have had to fight a civil war. Actually, the same civil war. As two Reality Chex contributors suggested in yesterday's Comments, the supposed ObamaCare fight-to-the-death is all wrapped up in the same shroud of racism that brought us the War of Northern Aggression. -- Constant Weader

     ... ** Update. Joan Walsh of Salon gets it exactly right: "You'll read lots of explanations for the dysfunction, but the simple truth is this: It's the culmination of 50 years of evolving yet consistent Republican strategy to depict government as the enemy, an oppressor that works primarily as the protector of and provider for African-Americans, to the detriment of everyone else. The fact that everything came apart under our first African-American president wasn't an accident, it was probably inevitable." ...

... Lemmings! Henry Farrell, in the Monkey Cage, on why House Republicans may not back down. ...

... Republicans Own the Shutdown. Steve Benen: "... we will hear many congressional Republicans and many in the political media suggest Democrats bear some or all of the responsibility for this fiasco. For those who care about reality in the slightest, anyone making such an argument deserves to be laughed at. The detail to keep in mind is that most GOP lawmakers aren't bothering with the pretense. They know that Republicans shut down the government -- and they're proud of it." Benen cites some proud remarks from the Crazy Kids. ...

... "Mission Accomplished: The Tea Party Shutdown." E. J. Dionne: "... no one talks more about the Constitution than the tea party. Before the Civil War, John C. Calhoun and a variety of nullifiers and future secessionists spoke incessantly about the Constitution, too. We know where that led." Thanks to Barbarossa for the link. ...

Nero blamed the Christians, the President's blaming the Republicans. -- Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas)

Evidently, comparing Obama to Hitler is now outre even among Republicans. But it is fine to compare him to a despot (often accused of being the Antichrist) who ordered the persecution & killing of Christians in retaliation for supposedly setting a massive fire. (I wrote to Poe & asked him to apologize to President Obama immediately; I'm sure he will.) Also great: compare yourself & your co-conspirators to Christian martyrs. One difference: the Christians were most likely innocent of burning down Rome; Republicans are openly gleeful about burning down Washington. -- Constant Weader

... A Reality Chek from Charles Pierce (this is something Nancy Pelosi alluded to Monday): "... this whole debate begins generally in a context of previous Democratic capitulations. Far from an equal footing, the Democrats find themselves in the ludicrous position of defending previous Republican victories for current Republican attacks." ...

... Catherine Thompson of TPM: "A planned Ku Klux Klan gathering in Gettysburg, Pa. was canceled due to the government shutdown, Philadelphia's WCAU reported Tuesday." ...

     ... As Charles Pierce writes, "The shutdown has had one positive consequence." In the same post, Pierce includes this language, "... the Greatest Generation (tm. Brokaw Treacle Enterprises)." CW: This alone is reason enough to love Pierce. ...

... Here's President Obama speaking yesterday about the shutdown & the rollout of the ACA:

... The White House Website now boasts this statement: "Due to Congress's failure to pass legislation to fund the government, the information on this web site may not be up to date. Some submissions may not be processed, and we may not be able to respond to your inquiries. Information about government operating status and resumption of normal operations is available at USA.GOV." ...

... Since John Boehner became Speaker of the House, "there has not been a single significant piece of legislation enacted into law":

... Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "The government shut down because a small group of Republicans, led by Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX), insist on linking continued funding to repealing, defunding, or delaying Obamacare. Even many prominent Republicans acknowledge that.... But some in the media still insist on pushing that false equivalence narrative that 'both sides are to blame.'" Leber reproduces "a few of the most egregious examples." ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: "Maybe such headlines reflect laziness and ignorance rather than silent partisanship, but they are more effective instruments for the GOP position than the fieriest Ted Cruz speech." ...

     ... CW: Zeke Miller & Alex Rogers of Time continue the both-sides-do-it tradition today: "On Day One of the shutdown, Republicans and Democrats agreed on one thing: their party was right. Politicians cheered party solidarity Tuesday, while acknowledging the damage they are causing by their inability to reach agreement. 'Democratic unity is as strong as ever,' boasted Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. 'And that is a great thing, because it means that there's hope. The bad news about today is, of course, that many innocent people were hurt.' 'It's an enormous victory,' said an aide to Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who was instrumental in crafting the Republican party's plan to tie defunding the Affordable Care Act to the government spending bill. 'It's unfortunate that it has resulted in a temporary government shutdown, but it's an enormous victory in that we have for the first time in more than a year...been talking about Obamacare in a very substantive way.'" ...

     ... CW: Look here, clueless, nonpartisan "journalist" people, the situation is pretty simple if even Tom Friedman can grasp it: "What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give into this hostage taking -- not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.... President Obama is not defending health care. He's defending the health of our democracy. Every American who cherishes that should stand with him." ...

... CW: I was sure, what the world falling down around us and her erstwhile O'Bambi having inconveniently mutated into a stand-up guy, that MoDo would write about the swell shoes pacing the runways during Fashion Week. Instead she roused herself to imagine John Boehner's Bad Day.Maybe she shoulda stuck to shoes.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "As Pope Francis convened a closed meeting on Tuesday with eight cardinals he appointed to overhaul the Vatican, he used his second revealing interview in two weeks to make a barbed indictment of the failings of the Roman Catholic Church, calling it overly clerical and insular, interested in temporal power and often led by 'narcissists.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels spawned a new genre of thrillers and made him one of the world's best-known and best-selling authors, died on Tuesday in Baltimore. He was 66."

The Commentariat -- October 1, 2013

Via the Washington Post, here's a full transcript of the President's remarks early this afternoon. ...

Thanks to MAG for the lead.

** Joshua Holland, writing in Bill Moyers' Journal, fingers the media as part of the problem: "... with a demographic tide going against them, Republicans have gradually jettisoned the norms that make democratic governance possible. First they filibustered virtually everything. Then they started creating these annual budget showdowns to fight for cuts in taxes and spending. Now they're using the budget battle to advance the entire legislative agenda of the hard right. In essence, they have made crisis governance the new normal -- but they did so incrementally. Like frogs in the proverbial pot, many journalists have slowly acclimated to these extreme, democracy-suffocating circumstances and now seem incapable of describing what's they're seeing." Holland provides examples. An excellent piece. ...

... The Washington Post has links to a bunch of shutdown impact stories here. ...

... The Post is liveblogging developments. ...

... Steve Inskeep of NPR interviewed President Obama on Monday. NPR released the interview this morning. The transcript is here:

     ... CW: Inskeep repeatedly asks stupid questions. He is insistent that President Obama find some way to "negotiate" with House Republicans. ...

... Here's the New York Times story, by Jonathan Weisman & Jeremy Peters, on the debacle. ...

... Tea Party Republicans like Michele Bachmann are boasting they got what they wanted. Really? As most of the government shuts down because attempts to defund Obamacare, ObamaCare goes live. The "health insurance marketplace" is now open at Healthcare.gov.

President Obama releases a message to U.S. troops:

Midnight. The Tea Party got exactly what they have wanted all along -- no government and they continue to be paid. The Senate has recessed till 9:30 am ET. Reid said, in effect, he would just table whatever baloney the House sent over, unless it was a clean bill. Rachel Maddow heard the House was going to have some vote on something. ...

     ... CW: MSNBC is reporting that probably a majority of House Republicans would vote for a clean continuing resolution.* If that is correct, it means that the "Hastert Rule" is out; the House is now operating on the "Boehner Rule" -- a bill will not be brought to the floor unless a minority of the majority approves of it. If Boehner had done what a probable majority of his caucus wanted & brought a clean CR to the floor, it would have passed easily. So this entire fiasco, it is important to realize, is the product of John Boehner's desire to keep his speaker's salary. It certainly isn't about his keeping his power because he has already ceded that to the Crazy Cruz Caucus. ...

     ... * Update: perhaps MSNBC based its speculation on this report by conservative Byron York of the Washington Examiner: "There are 233 Republicans in the House. Insiders estimate that three-quarters of them, or about 175 GOP lawmakers, are willing, and perhaps even eager, to vote for a continuing resolution that funds the government without pressing the Republican goal of defunding or delaying Obamacare. On the other side, insiders estimate about 30 House Republicans believe strongly that Obamacare is such a far-reaching and harmful law that the GOP should do everything it can --- everything --- to stop it or slow it down." CW: Got that? John Boehner let 30 crazed ideologues shut down the government so he could keep his job. ...

... Lori Montgomery & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Hours before a midnight deadline, the Republican House voted 228 to 201 to pass its third proposal in two weeks to fund the government. Like the previous plans, it sought to undermine the Affordable Care Act, this time by delaying enforcement of the 'individual mandate,' a cornerstone of the law that requires all Americans to obtain health insurance. The new measure also sought to strip lawmakers and their aides of long-standing government health benefits. The Democratic Senate quickly rejected that plan on a party-line vote of 54 to 46." ...

... President Obama spoke about the federal government shutdown, which will begin at midnight September 30. He didn't mince words:

 ... The New York Times is liveblogging developments re: the shutdown. ...

... Austin Wright of Politico: "President Barack Obama plans to sign a last-minute bill authorizing paychecks for troops and some Defense Department workers and contractors if the government shuts down, the White House said Monday. The House-passed bill to ensure the military is paid was approved without dissent in the Senate on Monday -- a rare bipartisan agreement as Congress stumbled toward midnight when the fiscal year ends and current appropriations expire." ...

... "Plan C." Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "With just hours to go until the government shuts down, House Republicans will try to pass a bill that would delay the mandate that individuals buy health insurance and would cancel health-insurance subsidies for members of Congress and staff, the president and administration appointees.... Those provisions would be attached to a government-funding bill, which will almost certainly be rejected by the Senate, since Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he wouldn't accept changes to Obamacare in the government funding negotiations." ...

     ... Ezra Klein: "John Boehner's 'Plan C' hurts Congress, hurts taxpayers, fixes nothing." ...

... Ginger Gibson of Politico: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday offered Speaker John Boehner the needed votes from her caucus to passed the continuing resolution that has already cleared the Senate. It is a compromise by Democrats, she argued. It isn't a surprising move by the California Democrat, who has so far refused to officially accept the $986 billion funding levels in the Senate-passed version of the bill. There was little doubt, however, that if called upon Pelosi would have been able to deliver the votes." ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "On what was shaping up as a Monday to remember at the White House, President Obama was alternately spectator and actor on three different issues that could define his legacy: the budget, health care and Middle East peace." ...

... Stephen Collinson of the AP: "President Barack Obama promised Benjamin Netanyahu Monday he would enter talks with Iran with clear eyes and demand verifiable concessions, following the Israeli leader's warnings about 'sweet talk' from the Islamic Republic." ...

... Peter Steinhauser of CNN: "According to [a CNN/ORC] survey, just 10% of Americans say they approve of the job Congress is doing, an all-time low in a CNN poll. And 87% say they disapprove of the job federal lawmakers are doing, higher than it's ever been in CNN polling.... While Americans' perception of the job Congress is doing has taken a hit, President Barack Obama's approval rating -- well under 50% -- has remained steady since earlier in the month....The unfavorable numbers for the tea party movement are also at an all-time high in CNN surveys." ...

... Looks like the denizens of Right Wing World are trying to minimize the impact of their sabotage. The National Review has one post titled, "Not Really a Shutdown; Most Services Keep Going," and the subhead under another is "The debate over the government shutdown should acknowledge its limited effects." ...

... MEANWHILE, here's the thinking at the right-wing American Spectator. Jed Babbin: "There's only one solution, and Republicans are stumbling toward it: let the government shut down for a few days, weeks or months in order to force Obama to the bargaining table and into a real compromise in which he has to give up something important such as Obamacare funding." And Robert McCain writes, "Liberal 'shutdown' rhetoric ignores the irresponsibility of Democrats." under the headline -- with a picture of President Obama & Harry Reid -- "Extremely Extreme Extremists." ...

     ... Update: Fox "News" is slugging this as a "Partial Government Shutdown."

Thanks to Kate M.

... CW: An example of biased poll reporting. CNN Political Unit: "Less than one in five Americans say their families will be better off under the new health care law, according to a new poll." That's the lede. Yeah, they're the "Political Unit," all right. The Tea Party wing of it. Halfway down the page, the reader learns, "... 36% say they won't benefit from the new law but other families will. If you add to that the 17% who believe Obamacare will help them personally, the survey indicates that most Americans see some good coming from it. Some 37% say no one in the country will benefit from the measure." What this poll means, roughly, is that only 17 percent of Americans believe they may need coverage for a pre-existing condition, or think they will get sick & need health insurance but can't otherwise afford it, or want to keep their college kids on their family policy, or don't already get government-backed health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid, V.A.), or have a vague knowledge of the beneficial provisions of the new healthcare law or even know the law exists (something like 33 percent of Americans, I read elsewhere, think the Supreme Court struck down ObamaCare or Congress repealed it) or never watch Fox "News." None of this takes into account the many indirect benefits the rest of us get when others are able to get health insurance & proper medical care. ...

     ... Update: The Hill reporting on this poll is even worse. The headline: "Less than one in five say ObamaCare will help." The reporter, Rebecca Shabad, doesn't even bother to include the mitigating data cited in the CNN report.

See yesterday's Comments re: the following: