Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released a video slamming President Obama for negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Syria but not with congressional Republicans over the debt ceiling.
Most GOP Voters Don’t Care if Debt Crisis Hurts Economy
Greg Sargent digs into the new Washington Post/ABC News poll on the debt ceiling and finds this amazing nugget:
“Among Republicans who believe that not raising the debt ceiling would cause serious harm to the economy, a majority of them wants Congress not to raise it anyway.”
Talking with Deep Throat
Bob Woodward’s notes of his discussions with “Deep Throat” during the Watergate crisis are now posted online.
Government Shutdown Would Hurt GOP Most
Karl Rove: “A shutdown now would have much worse fallout than the one in 1995. Back then, seven of the government’s 13 appropriations bills had been signed into law, including the two that funded the military. So most of the government was untouched by the shutdown. Many of the unfunded agencies kept operating at a reduced level for the shutdown’s three weeks by using funds from past fiscal years.”
“But this time, no appropriations bills have been signed into law, so no discretionary spending is in place for any part of the federal government. Washington won’t be able to pay military families or any other federal employee. While conscientious FBI and Border Patrol agents, prison guards, air-traffic controllers and other federal employees may keep showing up for work, they won’t get paychecks, just IOUs.”
“Going down that road would strengthen the president while alienating independents. It is an ill-conceived tactic, and Republicans should reject it.”
Syria Will Miss First Deadline in Chemical Weapons Deal
Los Angeles Times: “The ambitious U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough just days ago, hit its first delay Wednesday with indications that the Syrian government will not submit an inventory of its toxic stockpiles and facilities to international inspectors by this weekend’s deadline.”
McCain Writes Piece for Wrong Pravda
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) published an op-ed in Pravda taking aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin: “They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media.”
But it was the wrong Pravda, CNN reports.
“The Pravda McCain had publically said he wanted to be published in is one of the oldest Russian newspapers, founded in 1912… Pravda.ru, the news outlet that actually published McCain’s piece, is an electronic news website founded in 1999. Even though the website also bears the name Pravda, it is not connected to Pravda newspaper. The website has English and Russian editions and covers everything from politics to fashion and celebrities.”
House Republicans Angry With Cruz
House Republicans “expressed outrage” with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when he admitted Republicans did not have the votes in the Senate to defund Obamacare, CNN reports.
“The reaction from House Republicans and senior GOP leadership aides to Cruz’s latest statement on the matter was swift and angry, both about Cruz’s lack of confidence in a vote and his urging of the House to ‘stand firm.'”
Josh Marshall: “So he’s created this monster he can’t control. Only he was the monster the last crew created. I can’t keep up. But as the Bible says, the Popcorn shall passeth.”
Fed Stays the Course as Fiscal Showdown Looms
“Seeing a more uneven economic climate than they expected and the potential for fiscal discord in Washington, Federal Reserve officials got cold feet Wednesday and decided to keep their signature easy-money program in place for the time being,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Washington Post: “It’s not just the tax increases and budget cuts that have slowed growth all year. It’s also the possibility that the looming fiscal standoff could endanger the U.S. economy in the same way the July 2011 debt ceiling standoff did.”
Lawmaker Complains About Making $172K a Year
According to National Review, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) complained in a closed-door GOP meeting that many congressional aides “may be 33 years old now and not making a lot of money. But in a few years they can just go to K Street and make 500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000 a year.”
Clinton Says Quinn Was Lucky
Hillary Clinton told a charity luncheon in Chicago that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D), who lost a tough primary challenger when Bill Daley dropped his bid yesterday, “has just been entered into the Guinness World Records book as luckiest politician,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Does Obama’s Approval Rate Matter?
Real Clear Politics shows President Obama’s average net approval rate is now underwater by 6.6 percentage points.
Harry Enten: “Obama’s approval rating can greatly affect the 2014 midterm elections and, to a lesser extent, the 2016 presidential election… If the president’s approval rating were to hold, a very simple regression finds the Democrats would lose 30 seats in the House.”
“To be sure, the incumbent president’s approval rating matters less when he is not running for re-election… [Even so,] once we control for the economy, every 5pt increase in a president’s net approval rating increases his party’s candidate’s margin by 1pt in the [next] presidential election per Drew Linzer.”
Amash Will Not Make Senate Bid
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) will not
run for U.S. Senate in 2014, National Journal reports.
“Amash was tempted by the allure of a
campaign for higher office, sources say, but the second-term lawmaker
ultimately was unwilling to risk surrendering the clout he enjoys among
conservatives in the GOP-controlled House.”
Quote of the Day
“All that really matters is what my district wants. And my district is overwhelmingly in favor of my position.”
— Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Post. on why he supports a bill defunding Obamacare even if it leads to a government shutdown.
Conservative Rebellion Over Shutdown Tests Boehner
“The threat of a government shutdown intensified Tuesday as House Republican leaders moved toward stripping funding from President Obama’s landmark health-care initiative and setting up a stalemate with the Democratic Senate,” the Washington Post says.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “had hoped to keep the government open past Sept. 30 with relatively little fuss. But roughly 40 conservatives revolted. After a strategy session Tuesday, Boehner and his leadership team were being pushed into a more confrontational strategy that would fund the government into the new fiscal year only if Democrats agreed to undermine Obama’s signature legislative achievement.”
First Read: “As rough a stretch as President Obama and his team have had over the last couple of weeks (something we chronicled extensively yesterday), they have one thing going for them right now: House Republicans are in disarray, increasing the likelihood that the federal government could shut down.”
Unintimidated
Coming soon: Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge by Scott Walker and Marc Thiessen.
Clinton Still Schmoozing
Politico: “It’s like he never left. Bill Clinton is more than a decade removed from the White House, but if you were to look at the cellphone bills of some House Democrats, you wouldn’t know it. For a select group of Capitol Hill lawmakers — call them the Bill Clinton Caucus — the former president is a familiar voice on the other end of the line.”
“Sometimes Clinton is on the hunt for intel on competitive congressional races in districts he’ll be traveling to. At other times, he wants to know about pending bills or to see what kind of messaging his party will be using. Or the former president might just be calling to check in and shoot the breeze.”
The GOP Has a Collective Action Problem
Ezra Klein: “Here’s the Republican Party’s problem, in two sentences: It would be a disaster for the party to shut down the government over Obamacare. But it’s good for every individual Republican politician to support shutting down the government over Obamacare.”
Panetta and Gates Question Obama’s Syria Strategy
President Obama’s first two defense secretaries questioned his Syria strategy and said they would have told him not to seek Congress’ approval for a strike on President Bashar Assad’s forces, the Air Force Times reports.
“Speaking at a forum in Dallas, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta disagreed on whether the United States should ultimately carry out a military strike in retaliation for a chemical attack that the U.S. says killed 1,400 people. But both men said Obama shouldn’t have asked Congress to approve a strike, and both were skeptical and sometimes sarcastic about the current Russia-backed negotiations to have Syria turn over its chemical weapons.”
