memeorandum: Boehner's truth allergy (Steve Benen/Washington Monthly)

9:35 PM ET, July 26, 2011

Top Items:

David Rogers / The Politico:

CBO: John Boehner's debt bill comes up short — On the eve of a House vote, new cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office could pose a problem for Speaker John Boehner as he tries to rally conservative support for his two-step plan to raise the federal debt ceiling and avert default next week.

Discussion: CNN, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway and The Note

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

New polls confirm Obama's Democratic base crumbles — With all of the spotlights on the high-stakes debt maneuverings by President Obama and Speaker John Boehner the last few days, few people noticed what Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders said: — “I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.”

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Boehner to rework his debt-ceiling bill — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will rework his two-step plan to raise the debt ceiling after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found the bill would not cut as much spending as promised. — “We're here to change Washington - no more smoke-and-mirrors …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, nation.foxnews.com and RedState

The Hill:

Cantor tells GOP to ‘stop whining’ about Boehner debt-ceiling plan — Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Tuesday bluntly told House Republicans to stop “grumbling and whining” about Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) new proposal for a limited debt-limit increase.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Politico, CNN, Crooks and Liars, Club for Growth, James Pethokoukis, Hullabaloo, The Note, RedState, The Page, Wall Street Journal, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, JustOneMinute, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and cbpp.org

CBO's Latest 10 Documents:

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT ON THE DEFICIT OF THE BUDGET CONTROL ACT OF 2011 AS PROPOSED IN THE HOUSE — The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the impact on the deficit of the Budget Control Act of 2011, as posted on the Web site of the Committee on Rules on July 25, 2011. The legislation would:

Discussion: National Review, Daily Kos and Booman Tribune

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Boehner's truth allergy

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Washington Post, The New Republic, ThinkProgress, CBS News, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Daily Kos

Washington Times:
House GOP revolts against Boehner plan

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Red Dog Report and Associated Press

Alicia M.Cohn / The Hill:
Boehner says his plan's deficit committee will not raise taxes

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, The Note, The Democratic Daily, Little Green Footballs, Jared Bernstein and CNN

Charles Babington / Associated Press:
House GOP to rework budget plan after new estimate

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos and The Caucus

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid vows to defeat Boehner plan

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Jake Sherman / The Politico:
Cantor to GOP: Quit whining and vote

The Note:
Michele Bachmann Opposes Boehner Debt Plan: ‘The Premise Is Wrong’

Discussion: Pajamas Media, TPMDC, Political Punch, HotAirPundit and The Hill

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Cat To Emerge from Bag?

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Nancy Scola / The Atlantic Online:
With Call to Action, Obama Brings Down the House

Discussion: The Daily Pulp, The Huffington Post and Prairie Weather

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Oof: CBO says Boehner's bill would save less than $1T over 10 years …

Discussion: National Review and Weasel Zippers

Wall Street Journal:
Big GOP Bloc in House Opposes Boehner's Plan

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Gretawire and Political Punch

Daniel Stone / Yahoo! News:
Analysis: U.S. credit downgrade ‘inevitable’

Discussion: YID With LID and Hot Air

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Cantor: ‘The debt limit vote sucks’

Discussion: The Politico, The Atlantic Online, The Note and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

New York Post:
Bam's Desperation — President Obama likes to present himself …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and National Review

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
NOPE! Top House Conservatives Says Boehner Lacks Sufficient GOP Support To Raise Debt Limit

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, The New Republic and The Politico

New York Times:
The Republican Wreckage — House Republicans have lost sight of the country's welfare.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Speaker, Doug Ross, NationalJournal.com, Poor Richard's News, The Sundries Shack, Washington Post, The Atlantic Online, NewsBusters.org blogs, Shakesville, Washington Monthly, American Power, Swampland, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and Prairie Weather

Associated Press:
Boehner Plan Faces G.O.P. Resistance and Veto Threat

Discussion: Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, The Caucus, Outside the Beltway and Associated Press

Fred Thompson / National Review:

An Open Letter to the GOP — As someone who understands the pressures and difficulties you have been going through, I want to say, “Congratulations.” You won, and so did the country. — Absent some major miscalculations, within the next few days there will be official acknowledgement of what has already happened.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Shakesville

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Not Leveling with Viewers — It's been said many times. But it's never enough: the conventions of journalistic ‘objectivity’, as currently defined, frequently make journalists violate their biggest duty, which is honesty with readers. The top headline running now on CNN reads …

Discussion: Foreign Policy

Christina Marcos / The Hill:
Rep. Gutierrez arrested outside White House for second time

Discussion: CNN

Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard: White House's Carney on President's Debt Ceiling Plan: ‘You Need it Written Down?’

Guy Benson / Townhall.com:
Guy Benson White House: Asking for Obama's Specific Debt Plan is a “Republican Talking Point”

Discussion: Pirate's Cove and The Daily Caller

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
WH press corps hammers Carney: How come Obama hasn't produced his own debt-ceiling plan?

Discussion: Townhall.com and The Other McCain

Bryan Preston / Pajamas Media:
Unbelievable: Obama White House Stubbornly Refusing to Release Any Written Debt Plan (Update: Video Added)

Discussion: Sense of Events and Big Journalism

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

Public Wants a Debt Ceiling Compromise, Expects a Deal Before Deadline — GOP Widely Viewed as ‘More Extreme in Its Positions’ — OVERVIEW — The public overwhelmingly favors a compromise in the debt ceiling standoff. And even as negotiations aimed at resolving the issue show little progress …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, Booman Tribune and Politics

Reuters:

Americans back mixed solution for debt crisis: Reuters/Ipsos poll — (Reuters) - Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about the U.S. debt crisis and a majority back the type of compromise pushed by President Barack Obama to end the impasse, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Tuesday.

Discussion: Washington Post, NationalJournal.com, Daily Kos, TPMDC, No More Mister Nice Blog and Taegan Goddard's …

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Debt ceiling poll: Voters with Obama

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Daily Kos

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Public Wants Compromise in Debt Ceiling Debate

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Balloon Juice

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

SwiftVets revenge — The Navy Times (no link) reported last week that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus stripped the Silver Star from a Vietnam swift boat veteran, Capt. Wade Sanders: — “Had the subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Pajamas Media

Thomas Lifson / americanthinker.com:

Kerry spokesman stripped of Silver Star — John F. Kerry almost became president running on the basis of his alleged heroism in Vietnam. Thanks to the efforts of a group of truth-tellers, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the serious holes in the fantasy narrative propounded …

Discussion: The Other McCain

Andy Kroll / Mother Jones:

Michele Bachmann's $4,700 Hair and Makeup Bill — Considering Rep. Michele Bachmann's crusade against government spending and her demand that America live within its means, you wouldn't figure her for a conspicuous spender. But after launching her bid for the White House …

Discussion: The Blotter, National Review, Taylor Marsh, Big Journalism, The Raw Story, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Shakesville

WQAD-TV:
Bachmann walks away from WQAD

Discussion: Truth Wins Out, ThinkProgress, The Note, Towleroad News #gay and The Washington Independent

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Bachmann has skipped 37 percent of votes since launching bid

Discussion: The Politico, Wonkette, Outside the Beltway, ThinkProgress, msnbc.com, TPMDC and GOP 12

Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:

Pat Buchanan: Norwegian Right-Wing Terrorist ‘Breivik May Be Right’ — Today, in a World Net Daily op-ed, failed presidential candidate and conservative pundit Pat Buchanan offers an example of the ethnic bigotry and racial insensitivity that has come to define him.

Discussion: WorldNetDaily, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Newshoggers.com, Sky Dancing, Mediaite, Pharyngula, New Atlanticist and New York Times

Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. / The Jawa Report:
On Islamophobia and Right Wing Extremism

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Jihad Watch

Paul Krugman:

The Cult That Is Destroying America — Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences — it's increasingly obvious that what we're looking at is the destructive influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political system.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

David Brooks / New York Times:

Congress In the Lead — Some of us like to think big. We thought at the beginning of this debt crisis that it might be possible to reach a Grand Bargain. This deal would make a serious dent in the country's awful debt problem. It would begin to reform entitlements.

Discussion: The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Democracy in America, JustOneMinute, Althouse, Don Surber, NewsBusters.org blogs, DailyHowler.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice and Marbury

Dan Bilefsky / New York Times:

A Revenge Plot So Intricate, the Prosecutors Were Pawns — Soon after Seemona Sumasar started dating Jerry Ramrattan, she had an inkling that something might be wrong. — He said he was a police detective, but never seemed to go to work. He seemed obsessed with “C.S.I.,” “Law & Order” and other television police dramas.

Discussion: Gawker, Hit & Run, Shakesville, Gothamist and Althouse

JTA:

Envoy contrasts terror in Israel, Norway — JERUSALEM (JTA) — Norway's ambassador to Israel drew distinctions between the Oslo and Utoya massacres and Palestinian terrorism. — Svein Sevje said in an Israeli newspaper interview Tuesday that while the Norwergian bomb and gun rampages …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Atlas Shrugs, Israel Matzav and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion