The Commentariat -- Sept. 28, 2013

Another Entry into the No-Fly Zone. John Brenahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "With a government shutdown less than three days away, the House is charging toward delaying Obamacare for one year and repealing the medical device tax in exchange for funding the government, several sources tell Politico." CW: were this ploy to succeed -- which it won't -- people will die because of it. ...

... "In this week's address, President Obama says that on October 1, a big part of the Affordable Care Act will go live and give uninsured Americans the chance to buy the same quality, affordable health care as everyone else. It is also the day when some Republicans in Congress might shut down the government just because they don't like the law. The President urged Congress to both pass a budget by Monday and raise the nation's debt ceiling so that we can keep growing the economy." -- White House

... Paul Kane, et al., of the Washington Post: "With Washington barreling toward a government shutdown, a deadlocked Congress entered the final weekend of the fiscal year with no clear ideas of how to avoid furloughs for more than 800,000 federal workers. Millions more could be left without paychecks. The Senate on Friday approved a stopgap government funding bill and promptly departed, leaving all of the pressure to find a solution on House Republican leaders. [CW: as if it's not their fault.] Boehner's [CW: so-called] leadership team offered no public comment and remained out of sight most of Friday, hunkering down for another weekend on the brink. For Boehner, this is the latest in a series of unstable moments that have become the hallmark of his three-year run as speaker." ...

... Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama, in remarks at the White House, accused Republicans of 'political grandstanding' and said the GOP-controlled House now has the fate of a potential government shutdown in its hands. In the remarks, Obama addressed House Republicans directly. 'I encourage you to think about who you're hurting,' Obama said, noting that their own staff would be without paychecks in a shutdown.'" Obama also said he spoke to Iranian President Rouhani Friday (AP news story linked below):

... Jonathan Weisman, et al., of the New York Times: "The Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved stopgap spending legislation to keep the federal government open without gutting President Obama's health care law, setting up a weekend showdown with the House that will decide whether much of the government shuts down at midnight Monday. The 54-to-44 vote for final passage followed a more critical moment when the Senate, in a bipartisan rebuke to Republican hard-liners, cut off debate on the legislation. The 79-to-19 vote included the top Republican leadership and easily exceeded the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster." ...

... Seung Min Kim of Politico: "The split vote on cloture within the Senate Republican Conference ... laid bare the GOP divide that has persisted in recent weeks in the battle over government funding and against the president's health care law.... The nineteen Republican senators who opposed cutting off debate included [Ted] Cruz, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo; Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi; Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer; Iowa's Chuck Grassley; Nevada's Dean Heller; Oklahoma's Jim Inhofe; Utah's Mike Lee; Kansas's Jerry Moran; Kentucky's Rand Paul; Ohio's Rob Portman; Idaho's Jim Risch; Kansas's Pat Roberts; Florida's Marco Rubio; South Carolina's Tim Scott; Alabama's Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby; Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey; and Louisiana's David Vitter." ...

... Rat Tiptoes off Sinking Ship. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, is encouraging his uninsured constituents to take advantage of the law and sign-up for health care coverage when the new marketplaces open next Tuesday, putting himself at odds with lawmakers in his own party.... State Republican lawmakers in Missouri are actively trying to undermine reform and have explicitly refused to oversee Obamacare's most basic and popular protections, such as barring insurers from denying coverage to Americans with pre-existing medical conditions and discriminating against women on the basis of gender. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has even actively discouraged Missourians from signing up for insurance. Fourteen percent of Missourians are currently uninsured." Thanks to James S. for the lead. ...

... Aaron Blake & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Former Vice President Al Gore on Friday called the GOP's strategy to defund Obamacare 'political terrorism.' Speaking at the Brookings Institution, Gore called it a 'despicable and dishonorable threat to the United States of America' for Republicans to risk shutting down the government if they don't get what they want." ...

... Robert Costa of the National Review: "On a Thursday conference call, a group of House conservatives consulted with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas about how to respond to the leadership's fiscal strategy. Sources who were on the call say Cruz strongly advised them to oppose it, and hours later, Speaker John Boehner's plan fizzled. It's the latest example of Cruz leading the House's right flank." ...

... Tailgunner Ted. Ed Kilgore: "This is some genuine intrigue involving a massive breach of congressional etiquette by Cruz. And it's also just weird: House and Senate members rarely deal with each other directly. They inhabit different realms that do not usually intersect. But any way you slice it, it looks bad for the House leadership.... Such intraparty outlaw behavior is yet another thing he has in common with his look-alike bullyboy predecessor from back in the day, Joe McCarthy." ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "... what you don't see too much of is real cloak-and-dagger, House of Cards-style plotting, with clandestine meetings, vicious backstabbing, and high-risk conspiracies." This is it. "The rest of us look at this situation and see a bunch of maniacs hurtling the country toward disaster. But they're having a blast!" as a series of tweets from Costa reveals. Here's one: "Anti-Boehner gang in House absolutely loving this fight, tho. Secret mtgs with Cruz, plotting with each other, CR as a chess game" ...

... CW: There is not much that's more annoying than someone who not only purposely puts you in a bind, but also smirks about it. Add to that, these teabaggers are ready to put the nation -- nay, the world -- in a helluva bind -- because it's fun. So for Boehner, this is not just personal. These teabaggers have given him every reason to neuter them. I think he will. If he was wavering, those tweets from Costa could cement his resolve. ...

... Gail Collins: "... on Friday the House members did show they could pass legislation in a purposeful, bipartisan fashion. They approved a bill naming a building in Virginia after a deceased federal worker." ...

... Their Fearless Leader. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest national poll finds Ted Cruz is now the top choice of Republican primary voters to be their candidate for President in 2016. He leads the way with 20% to 17% for Rand Paul, 14% for Chris Christie, 11% for Jeb Bush, 10% each for Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, 4% for Bobby Jindal, and 3% each for Rick Santorum and Scott Walker." ...

... Digby: " The problem isn't that the Tea party is crazy. It's that Republicans are crazy. Only 18% of them can be described a moderate." ...

... Even Obama's Twitter Account Is Suspect. Tom Kludt of TPM: "Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer backed off on his suggestion earlier this week that Twitter allows President Barack Obama to [link fixed] use more than 140 characters in his tweets, but some Republican primary voters evidently still have doubts." ...

... CW: I guess this means there isn't much chance they'll believe this. Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "A panel of the world’s leading climate scientists strongly asserted Friday that 'it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause' of global warming since 1950 and warned of more rapid ice melt and rising seas if governments do not aggressively act to reduce the pace of greenhouse gas emissions. At a meeting in Stockholm, where the panel released its latest assessment of climate change, the scientists for the first time established a budget for the amount of carbon that can be released into the atmosphere. Even if that target is reached, carbon emissions will have harmful impact on the environment well into the future." Personally, I think global warming is god's plan to boost Canadian tourism.

AP: "President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone Friday, the first conversation between American and Iranian presidents in more than 30 years. The exchange could reflect a major step in resolving global concerns over Iran's nuclear program. Obama told reporters at the White House that he had a constructive conversation with the Iranian leader." ...

... Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "In Iran, many had been disappointed when Mr. Rouhani failed to show up Tuesday at a United Nations luncheon, where he had been expected to shake hands with Mr. Obama. But the Friday call as Mr. Rouhani was heading to the airport to fly home to Iran, after four days of frenetic diplomacy in the United States, was, [to Iranians,] almost as good as a handshake."

Political scientist David Karol, writing in the Monkey Cage, explains why it's "Democratic Care," not ObamaCare. If Obama wanted to be the Democratic presidential nominee, he had no choice but to embrace healthcare reform: "While not every twist and turn in the ACA's tortured path was fated, Obama's embrace of health care reform can be explained simply; it is the longstanding policy of the Democratic Party he sought to lead. Democratic constituencies have long wanted health care reform and Democratic presidents have fought for it, with varying degrees of commitment and success, since the time of Harry Truman." CW: Karol doesn't refute the Politico article I linked a few days ago (tho he calls the Politico piece "misleading"), but he adds dimension.

Dina Elboghdady of the Washington Post: "The Federal Housing Administration plans to tap $1.7 billion in taxpayer money at the end of the month to cover its losses -- a first for an agency that has been self-sustaining since its creation in 1934. The FHA has played a pivotal role in propping up the housing market by backing low-down-payment loans for borrowers after the mortgage market unraveled and other lending sources dried up. It accounts for nearly 20 percent of all home-purchase mortgages. The agency does not make loans; it insures lenders against losses should loans go bad. It has always used the fees it charges borrowers to cover losses."

Local News

Kate Zernike & Mark Santora of the New York Times: "A New Jersey judge ruled Friday that the state must allow same-sex couples to marry, since failing to do so would deprive them of rights that are now guaranteed by the federal government. The decision will most likely be challenged by Gov. Chris Christie, who has publicly opposed gay marriage. The judge, Mary C. Jacobson of State Superior Court, ruled that under its Constitution, New Jersey must allow marriage in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in June striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act." The ruling is here. The Star-Ledger story, by Salvador Rizzo, is here.

The Commentariat -- Sept. 27, 2013

NEW. The Senate has voted for cloture on the continuing resolution. 19 Republicans voted against. There is a series of 4 votes to go at 1:00 pm ET. I'm having major problems with connections, so I'm going to give this up & go do some other thing.

Alina Selyukh of Reuters: "At least a dozen U.S. National Security Agency employees have abused secret surveillance programs in the past decade, most often to spy on their significant others, according to the latest findings of the agency's internal watchdog. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, Charles Grassley, NSA Inspector General George Ellard outlined 12 instances of 'intentional misuse' of the agency's intelligence gathering programs since January 1, 2003." CW: Sounds like the same stuff the Washington Post reported about a month ago.

Mike Corder of the AP: "The inspectors responsible for tracking down Syria's chemical arms stockpile and verifying its destruction plan to start in Syria by Tuesday. They will face their tightest deadlines ever and work right in the heart of a war zone, according to a draft decision obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The decision is the key to any U.N. resolution on Syria's chemical weapons program." ...

... Rick Gladstone & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have agreed on a resolution that will require Syria to give up its chemical weapons, but the text will not threaten the use of force for a failure to comply, officials said." ...

     ... Update. Here's the text of the draft agreement.

Laurence Norman & Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. and Iran held their highest-level talks in 36 years on Thursday, in what some officials present described as a substantial meeting over Tehran's disputed nuclear program that could begin to counter decades of enmity. In the session, diplomats began the process of trying to establish programs to inspect, verify and curtail Iran's expanding nuclear complex, a process diplomats on both sides warned was arduous and uncertain." (CW: the fact that John Kerry is presiding over this thawing with Iran & the ever-more-likely chemical weapons detente in Syria must be aggravating Hillary Clinton.) ...

... Why the Obama-Rouhani handshake didn't happen. (Sorry, wingers, it wasn't because nobody respects Obama or he's not really a world-class leader or yadayadayada):

The Stupid Party, Ctd.

No Congress before this one has ever, ever, in history been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills, just to try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with a budget. -- Barack Obama, yesterday

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Barring any unforeseen twists..., the Senate will proceed to a series of votes at 12:30 p.m. that will send a budget bill to the House that Republicans there have vowed to change because of their strong opposition to any measure that helps the administration put the health care law into effect. That will set up a game of legislative Ping-Pong that will tip the government perilously close to shutting down on Tuesday.... It is unclear what the Republicans want, other than a complete repeal of the health law." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio signaled he was not ready to abandon a spending fight that could shut down the federal government as soon as Tuesday. Asked whether he would put a stopgap spending bill to a vote free of Republican policy prescriptions, he answered, "I do not see that happening." ...

... Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "Top House Republican leaders Thursday rejected the short-term spending plan expected to be passed by the Senate in coming days, increasing the possibility of a government shutdown next week. Asked if the House would pass the bill unchanged once it is sent from the Senate, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) replied: 'I do not see that happening.'" ...

     ... Update. Lori Montgomery & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Late Thursday afternoon, Boehner convened an emergency meeting of his leadership team to try to hash things out. They emerged with no answers, and no clear path forward for any piece of legislation, either to keep the lights on in Washington or to make sure the Treasury Department can continue to pay the nation's bills by raising the borrowing limit." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker on the geography of the "suicide caucus": "... it's worth considering the demographics and geography of the eighty districts whose members have steered national policy over the past few weeks.... Half of these districts are concentrated in the South, and a quarter of them are in the Midwest, while there's a smattering of thirteen in the rural West and four in rural Pennsylvania (outside the population centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh). Naturally, there are no members from New England, the megalopolis corridor from Washington to Boston, or along the Pacific coastline. These eighty members represent just eighteen per cent of the House and just a third of the two hundred and thirty-three House Republicans." Includes map. ...

... Jonathan Chait: Wednesday, House Republicans "began circulating their initial ransom list of demands that President Obama and Senate Democrats must meet or else watch the world economy melt down." Chait lists their "extensive" demands and asks, "Does that list sound vaguely familiar? It's Mitt Romney's 2012 economic plan. Almost word for word.... The fact that a major party could even propose anything like this is a display of astonishing contempt for democratic norms." ...

     ... This is almost hilarious. Russell Berman, et al., of the Hill: "In a closed-door meeting, the leaders outlined to their members a proposal that would demand a laundry list of Republican priorities in exchange for a yearlong suspension of the nation's $16.7 trillion borrowing limit. The centerpiece of the plan is a one-year delay of President Obama's signature healthcare law. But hours after the meeting, the party had yet to release the legislation formally, and conservatives complained that it lacked specific spending cuts and failed to tackle entitlement reform." (Emphasis added.) CW: Get that? Teabaggers figure that in exchange for their "concession" to refrain from causing international economic chaos, Democrats should enact Mitt Romney's agenda -- and more. And I like to say "elections have consequences." Well, not according to the teabag brigade. ...

... CW: Can we all at least agree on this? John Boehner is the worst Speaker of the House in anyone's memory. Contributor Patrick wrote yesterday that Boehner should fall on his sword for the good of the country. Let's see if he's man enough to do it. I have a sneaking suspicion he is. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Democrats are not asking Republicans to give up anything in requesting that they support a debt limit hike. They are not asking Republicans to agree to more spending. They are not asking for new taxes. They are simply asking Republicans to join them in making it possible for Congress to pay obligations it has already incurred, and in so doing, avert economic catastrophe for the whole country. There is no rationale for giving Republicans anything in return for this." ...

... Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post: "The thing about the debt ceiling is that it's not in any way, shape, or form a 'partisan' issue. There's no 'position' to take on it. It is not a liberal or a conservative 'idea.' And raising the debt ceiling confers no privileges or advantages on anyone -- it doesn't advance any policy or philosophy, and it doesn't even permit new debt.... If Republicans do the responsible thing, and offer a clean debt ceiling hike, they will have conceded nothing. They will still be free to block spending, deny revenue increases, stage debates on their preferred policies, enter into bargains, and use the traditional campaign cycle to make the case for whatever the legislative process denies them.... It is up to Obama to break this cycle of violence (and this is perhaps fitting, since he played such a major role in unleashing it in the first place)." ...

... CW: That is, raising the debt limit is not on a par with the usual legislative horse trading where one side agrees to X if the other side will concede on Y. Raising the debt ceiling is just a routine requirement imposed by a now-anachronistic 1917 law, a law intended to give the executive the power to issue liberty bonds & to incur other debt necessary to carry on World War I efforts -- but which Congress had not specifically authorized. By contrast, the debt the government is incurring today is for stuff that Congress has previously authorized. Alex-Seitz Wald makes my point, via Greg Sargent:

... Matt Yglesias of Slate: "The one thing Obama absolutely cannot do under any circumstances is negotiate over the statutory debt limit. The reason is that Republicans are essentially asking for an end to constitutional government in the United States and its replacement by a wholly novel system.... The absolute worst mistake Obama has made as president came back in 2011 when Republicans first pulled this stunt.... The good news is that the White House recognizes they made a mistake.... A terrible monster was let out of the box in 2011 and the best thing Obama can possibly do for the country at this point is to stuff it back in and hopefully kill it." ...

... Ed Kilgore agrees: "... the answer to this vicious 'opening bid' from Boehner needs to be 'no,' not 'maybe' or 'maybe something else.' If no negotiations occur, then there is a reasonably high probability that the GOP's corporate allies will make Boehner walk the plank and cooperate with House Democrats to pass a 'clean' debt limit increase. That's actually the only sane way out of the dark place Boehner is leading the country towards right now." ...

... Josh Barro of Business Insider: "America's constitutional system only works if the divided branches of government are willing to work together to make consensual agreements about running the government. Republicans are showing themselves to be too irresponsible to make the American constitutional system work." ...

... Noam Scheiber of the New Republic argues that if Boehner wants to (a) keep his job & (b) avoid economic chaos, his best path is to allow the government to shut down & watch the minor chaos that ensues, then tell his teabaggers everybody hates them for shutting down the government, thus paving the way for raising the debt ceiling without conditions. ...

... Ben White of Politico: "Wall Street to GOP: 'Are you nuts?'" ...

... CW: I know the President doesn't agree with me, but I think both he & the Congress have the Constitutional duty to honor the nation's debts. The Constitution requires that the Congress "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution ... [it Constitutional] Powers," and that the President "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed...." So Congress passes laws & in many cases those laws require the executive branch to make substantial expenditures. (Note how this differs from the purpose of the 1917 law, which was to allow the executive to incur debt for expenditures Congress had not authorized.) When the Congress fails in its Constitutional duty, as Boehner is threatening, that doesn't give the President a pass to fail in his, too. He'd better "take care" to pay the bills Congress incurred. (People who argue that the president has Constitutional authority to raise the debt ceiling usually cite the 14th Amendment; others -- including President Obama -- say that the 14th Amendment doesn't give her/him that power.) ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Feuding in the Republican Conference moved to the Senate floor on Thursday as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) accused two colleagues [-- Ted Cruz & Mike Lee --] of risking a government shutdown as a publicity stunt." ...

I'm not saying Ted Cruz is responsible for all his supporters, but he has tapped into a dark strain here in the American political psyche here, and again, the most obscene, profane stuff you can imagine all from people who say they support the Constitution. I think what we have to do is reach out to his people and let them know that they're following a false leader here. -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), after saying he had received many "vile, obscene & profane" phone calls from Cruz supporters

So far at least Democrats are proving they are not stupid enough to fall into the Delay ObamaCare Trap. Ben Terris of the National Journal: "Any delay to Obamacare -- whether it's pushing back the individual mandate or stripping funding for a year -- would only open the door to devastating consequences for the law. Once Obama shows he is willing to negotiate on his signature piece of legislation -- and, by implication, signaling that the law may have deep, fundamental problems -- there will be no end of trying to tear it down, with opponents perhaps garnering another 41 House votes to defund it in the process. 'It's not worth discussing, because it's not going to happen,' Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told National Journal. 'We're more than happy to work with Republicans to fix some of the glitches. But they're not interested in making adjustments; they're simply trying to wipe it out completely.'" ...

'Fairness' does not seem to us a judicially manageable standard." -- Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the conservative majority in "Pennsylvania's [2004] carefully orchestrated, computer-driven redistricting -- a partisan coup openly designed to maximize Republican gains" (Epps) ...

... Garrett Epps of the Atlantic: The members of the Supreme Court may congratulate themselves as leading the only functional branch of government, but their hands are hardly clean. The current dysfunction in Congress & in many of the states is the direct outcome of some of their naive decisions: "The Court isn't the cause of our current crisis. But the justices are not immune from the zombie epidemic; indeed, the Court may actually be a carrier of the plague." ...

     ... CW: Epps doesn't say so, but I will: the chaos we're witnessing now is precisely the situation the conservatives on the Court wanted: a minority of white wingers paralyzing the government & eliminating or curtailing social welfare programs. Scalia's opinion is stunning; the fundamental purpose of any judiciary is to right wrongs; i.e., to make the unfair fair. That's the purpose of torts; you sue somebody because you believe he has treated you unfairly under the law. Scalia doesn't know what his job is.

Paul Krugman has an excellent column on the .01 percent sociopaths, who besides thinking they are entitled to all that they possess, also believe they deserve massive government handouts -- and you don't -- expect your adulation, too. (Yes, I have my decimal in the right place.)

Matt Taibbi: "All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers." ...

... CW: the "system" has always been rigged against ordinary people, but the rape of pension funds -- which has been going on in one form or another for decades -- seems particularly egregious to me. While the wingnuts look for conspiracies involving Obama & his Muslim puppetmasters or whatever, the Masters of the Universe & their bought-&-paid-for public officials are systematically robbing the deluded conspiracy theorists (and many others) blind. The anti-Obama hysteria, the anti-abortion hysteria, the NRA hysteria, etc., are all diversions to keep people from noticing who the real pickpockets are.

Massimo Calabresi of Time: "A Department of Justice Inspector General report lays out the limited ways domestic law enforcement is using drones, for now, and recommends policies to constrain their use." CW: Calabresi's post on the DOJ report would be interesting by itself, but he makes it more fun by comparing the actual findings to what Sen. Rand Paul imagined during the course of his March filibuster. Jane Fonda, you're safe.

The Commentariat -- Sept. 26, 2013

NEW. Jonathan Weisman & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders shifted the budget battle on Thursday to a potentially more consequential fight over raising the government's borrowing limit, rolling out conditions for a debt-ceiling increase pulled from three years of frustration over efforts to roll back regulations and undo President Obama's first-term achievements." C-SPAN has the video. ...

... NEW. AFP: "President Barack Obama Thursday warned he would never allow Republicans to kill or delay his health care law, raising the stakes in a showdown that could shutter the government or trigger a US debt default. House of Representatives Republicans are refusing to fund a government budget or raise the $16.7 trillion federal borrowing ceiling unless the president agrees to defund or delay ... 'ObamaCare' ..." He gave a (long and) robust defense of & a good explanation of how the ACA works, & he reiterated his refusal to negotiate on the debt ceiling. ...

... No Surprise Here. Lori Montgomery & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "With federal agencies set to close their doors in five days, House Republicans began exploring a potential detour on the path to a shutdown: shifting the fight over President Obama's health-care law to a separate bill that would raise the nation's debt limit. If it works, the strategy could clear the way for the House to approve a simple measure to keep the government open into the new fiscal year, which will begin Tuesday, without hotly contested provisions to defund the Affordable Care Act. But it would set the stage for an even more nerve-racking deadline on Oct. 17, with conservatives using the threat of the nation's first default on its debt to force the president to accept a one-year delay of the health-care law’s mandates, taxes and benefits." ...

... Manu Raju & Jake Sherman of Politico: John "Boehner's strategy all along has been to place outsize importance on the debt ceiling fight.... He thinks Obama's position -- that he will not negotiate on lifting the borrowing limit -- is impossible to maintain. So the speaker has compiled a debt hike bill with a bunch of goodies that they think House Republicans will vote for, and red state Senate Democrats won't want to avoid." ...

... BUT. Jonathan Chait: "Republicans see the magnitude of a debt-ceiling breach as a reason to believe Obama will eventually negotiate. It's actually a reason to believe he won't. The meta-conflict over whether the debt ceiling ought to be held hostage, or simply raised, has implications that extend well beyond the actual demands at hand. If Obama agrees to trade policy concessions for a debt-ceiling hike, he will permanently enshrine debt-ceiling hostage dramas in the practical functioning of American government.... Terrible though it may be, a default may actually be necessary to preserve the constitutional structure of American government and the rest of Obama's presidency." ...

... CW: One has to hope Boehner actually knows this -- Chait isn't sure -- & Boehner's actual "strategy all along" is to string along his Tea Party caucus, then allow House Democrats & a few GOP grownups to vote to raise the debt ceiling. Boehner has relied on Democrats something like 5 times this year to pass legislation which the Tea Party opposes. Surely his Wall Street backers are demanding that he do the same now. ...

... Gail Collins: "Our elected officials are loonier than Iran. Than the pope on sex. Less useful than Vladimir Putin." ...

... More Dr. Snooze:

... BUT. Let's be fair. Ted Cruz doesn't need Jon Stewart to help him look ridiculous. He can do it all by himself:

... OR to be offensive. David Rogers of Politico: "Breaking with the usual traditions of decorum, Cruz repeatedly spoke of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) by name, and not simply his title. He chastised fellow senators for not being on the floor to engage with him on the health care debate...." A few of Ted's remarks about his distinguished colleagues:

Why is Washington broken? Because you have 100 people, a significant number of whom on a daily basis, tell their boss, tell their constituents: I am too busy for you.

It is apparently very important to be invited to all the right cocktail parties in town. I do not go to a whole lot of cocktail parties in town... But there are members of this body for whom that is very important.

It's is a little bit akin to the World Wrestling Federation, wrestling matches where it is all rigged. There are some members of this body, if we could have 100 show votes, saying here is what we are for, but mind you, none of them are actually going to change the law, none of them are going to make one iota of difference to the American people because they will never become law ... that curiously would make a significant number of senators happy.

      ... Rogers: "Yet after all of this, Cruz himself joined in support of the vote Wednesday for cloture sought by Reid." CW: I hope some of those Tea Party radicals in the House get all upset about that. Cruz told them to stand strong against funding ObamaCare. But he didn't even vote "no" on the cloture vote he supposedly spent 21 hours urging all Republicans & even Democrats to oppose. I don't know how a person can be more hypocritical, but stay tuned: I'm sure Ted will teach us soon enough.

When Cruz walks into future conservative movement gatherings, he'll be welcomed like Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem. When other Republicans head home, they will be asked whether they Stood With Cruz, and pilloried if they didn't. -- Dave Weigel of Slate

Fair enough. But you know who else gets welcomed into those gatherings like Jesus? Sarah Palin. Michele Bachmann. Rick Santorum. Cruz's ambitions are bigger than that, but most people who are not Republican activists/primary voters will within a few weeks forget what this whole thing was about. -- Paul Waldman of the American Prospect

Five days after Jesus's big welcome, Jerusalem's leaders crucified him. -- Constant Weader

... Lucy McCalmont of Politico: Experts agree: "Dr. Seuss wouldn't have had much of an appetite for Sen. Ted Cruz reading 'Green Eggs and Ham' on the Senate floor":

Not only would he be offended at the misuse of 'Green Eggs and Ham,' but he'd be offended at almost everything that Ted Cruz stands for, which is to remove the safety net from poor people, poor and vulnerable people, he's clearly more power hungry than he is compassionate and he's a bully. --Peter Dreier, professor of politics

... In some ways Ted Cruz is a Dr. Seuss character.... He is this kind of cartoon character who sort of parodies his own behavior. You could imagine him as being in a Dr. Seuss book without really changing much about him, he's so outlandish. Phil Nel, professor of children's literature

... CW: Over in Right Wing World & among pretend-neutral commentators, there has been an unsurprising cri de media bias in which the less-than-breathless coverage of Tailgunner Ted's talkathon is being contrasted with the fairly positive coverage of Wendy Davis's actual filibuster of a Texas state anti-abortion bill. For a succinct deflation of that bubble, we turn to John Cole of Balloon Juice: "The conservatives yell 'BOO,' and the media flinches. No discussion of the differing circumstances. No discussion that Davis was trying to stop a law being passed under shady circumstances while Cruz is trying to backdoor invalidate a law passed by both houses, signed by the President, and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court." ...

... Steve Benen adds: "Davis was waging a filibuster Cruz is delivering a long and inconsequential speech. Davis succeeded in blocking progress on a measure she opposed; Cruz isn't actually having any kind of legislative impact whatsoever. Davis was fighting against a proposal that was not yet law; Cruz doesn't like a measure that's already law. Davis enjoyed the support of her party; Cruz has been widely criticized by his party. Davis had to stay on topic; Cruz has read from Ayn Rand novels on the floor of the Senate. Davis was watched like a hawk by Republicans hoping to stop her; Cruz has generally been ignored by Democrats who don't much care about his theatrics." ...

... CW: I'm not the Oracle of Delphi, so I can't confidently predict how Texas Republicans will vote in 2018, but it occurs to me that Ted's Big Stunt may be the beginning of the end of his glorious career. If his potential opponents can paint him as an obstructionist who tried to withhold Granny's Social Security check & Cousin Bob's military paycheck, or just as a total phony who was far more destructive than constructive, voters could reject him. It is not entirely implausible -- tho perhaps unlikely -- that the person who ultimately defeats him in 2018 would be Wendy Davis. Let's hope the Fates have a sense of humor & a fondness for ironic justice.

Lydia Saad of Gallup: "As Washington braces for another budget showdown, this time with the threat of defunding the new healthcare law in the mix, the key political force pushing for conservative policies sees diminished popular support. Fewer Americans now describe themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement than did at the height of the movement in 2010, or even at the start of 2012. Today's 22% support nearly matches the record low found two years ago."

Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "How the Heritage Foundation went from the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement to the GOP's bane -- and how it's hurting the party's hopes for a turnaround." Thanks to contributor Akhilleus for the link.

Paul Lewis & Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Four senators at the vanguard of bipartisan efforts to rein in US government spying programs announced the most comprehensive package of surveillance reforms so far presented on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. 'The disclosures over the last 100 days have caused a sea change in the way the public views the surveillance system,' said Democratic senator Ron Wyden, unveiling the bill at a press conference alongside Republican Rand Paul." The other two Senate sponsors are Mark Udall (D-Colo.) & Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). ...

... Agence France Presse: "The National Security Agency eavesdropped on civil rights icon Martin Luther King and heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali as well as other leading critics of the Vietnam War in a secret program later deemed 'disreputable,' declassified documents revealed. The six-year spying program, dubbed 'Minaret,' had been exposed in the 1970s but the targets of the surveillance had been kept secret until now. The documents released Wednesday showed the NSA tracked King and his colleague Whitney Young, boxing star Ali, journalists from the New York Times and the Washington Post, and two members of Congress, Senator Frank Church of Idaho and Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee."

Ben Hubbard & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "As diplomats at the United Nations push for a peace conference to end Syria's civil war, a collection of some of the country's most powerful rebel groups publicly abandoned the opposition's political leaders, casting their lot with an affiliate of Al Qaeda. As support for the Western-backed leadership has dwindled, a second, more extreme Al Qaeda group has carved out footholds across parts of Syria, frequently clashing with mainline rebels who accuse it of making the establishment of an Islamic state a priority over the fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad." ...

... Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "After months of crippling deadlock, members of the United Nations Security Council have inched closer to the details of a binding resolution on Syria, Western diplomats said Wednesday, though Russia, one of Syrias strongest allies, denied that a consensus had been reached."

Michelle Nichols of Reuters: "The United States signed a U.N. Arms Trade Treaty regulating the $70 billion global trade in conventional arms on Wednesday and the Obama administration sought to allay the fears of the powerful U.S. gun lobby which says the pact will violate the constitutional rights of Americans. The treaty, which relates only to cross-border trade and aims to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers and criminals, still requires ratification by the U.S. Senate and has been attacked by the influential gun rights group the National Rifle Association (NRA)." ...

... Keith Wagstaff of the Week doubts the Senate will ratify the treaty because of NRA opposition & right-wing animosity toward the U.N. "Last year, Republican senators voted down a U.N. human rights treaty based on the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act because, in the words of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla), it gave too much power to 'overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society.'" CW: this was after the aged Bob Dole, a disabled American veteran, former GOP Senate Leader & presidential nominee, came to the Senate to lobby for a relatively innocuous treaty aimed at protecting the rights of the disabled.

This is pretty disturbing, but since it will be all over the Internet, here it is: video of Aaron Alexis entering a building at the Navy Yard:

... Peter Hermann & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The government contractor who killed 12 people at the Navy Yard last week was driven by delusions that he was being controlled by low frequency radio waves, and he scratched the words 'End the torment!' on the barrel of the shotgun used in the killings, the FBI said Wednesday, offering new, chilling details of the killings. Valerie Parlave, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office, confirmed that Aaron Alexis, 34, had a performance issue at work that was addressed the Friday before the shooting. But she said there was no indication that Alexis targeted 'anyone he worked for or worked with.'" ...

... Marjorie Censer of the Washington Post: "Technology giant Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday that it has terminated its relationship with The Experts, following a shooting at the Navy Yard in which an employee of the subcontractor, Aaron Alexis, is alleged to have killed 12 people. In a letter sent to Thomas Hoshko, chief executive of the Florida-based company, an HP executive wrote that the tech giant 'has lost all confidence in The Experts' ability to meet its contractual obligations and serve as an HP subcontractor.'"

CW: I'm posting this link because everyone but me thinks it's interesting. Alec MacGillis of the New Republic on Doug Band, a sleazy Clinton factotum ("a gatekeeper who charged tolls") who facilitates the Clintons' sleazy activities. MacGillis calls this a scandal; sorry, but the Clintons have been a sleazy couple since Doug was in diapers. I learned a lot from the Clintons, and what I learned mostly was that relentless ambition, combined with amoral cunning, can have a very big payoff. Beyond question, they are extraordinary people, but they are not admirable people, either of them.

George & Babs, Menches. Washington Post: "Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara served as ... official witnesses Saturday at the Maine wedding of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, co-owners of a Kennebunk general store."

The Godless Irish. Henry McDonald of the Guardian: "... atheists in Ireland have secured the right to teach the republic's primary schoolchildren that God doesn't exist. The first ever atheist curriculum for thousands of primary school pupils in Ireland has been drawn up by Atheist Ireland in an education system that the Catholic church hierarchy has traditionally dominated. Up to 16,000 primary schoolchildren who attend the fast growing non-denominational Irish school sector will receive direct tuition on atheism as part of their basic introduction course to ethics and belief systems.... All primary school pupils, including the 93% of the population who attend schools run by the Catholic church, can access their atheism course on the internet and by downloading an app on smartphones." CW: Hey, let's try this in Texas!

Gubernatorial Race

Laura Vozella & Fredrick Kunkle of the Washington Post: "Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli II brought their bitterly personal battle for governor to a crucial debate in Northern Virginia on Wednesday night, each casting the other as unfit for office, untrustworthy and wrong for the commonwealth."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Viewing the deadly siege at a shopping mall in Kenya as a direct threat to its security, the United States is deploying dozens of F.B.I. agents to investigate the wreckage, hoping to glean every piece of information possible to help prevent such a devastating attack from happening again, possibly even on American soil." ...

... AFP: "Kenya on Thursday buried victims of a four-day mall massacre by Islamist gunmen as international forensic and security experts scanned the rubble for bodies and clues."