memeorandum: PolitiFact to launch PunditFact, checking pundits and media figures (Amy Hollyfield/PolitiFact)

6:30 PM ET, October 10, 2013

Top Items:

Erick Erickson / RedState:

House GOP Preparing to Give Up — I'm being told by several sources that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are plotting to give up trying to either defund or delay Obamacare. — This comes at the same time the Obama administration admits it will be months before their Obamacare website …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette, The Lonely Conservative, Talking Points Memo, Politico, neo-neocon, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, The Dish and Washington Post

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

GOP's New Strategy: Avert Default But Keep Government Shut — Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Thursday that the House will move forward with a six-week debt limit extension after pitching the idea to his Republican conference during a closed-door meeting.

Discussion: American Prospect, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Dish and Shakesville

Politico:

John Boehner's bet: Democrats will talk — Speaker John Boehner's latest gambit — to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks while leaving government shut down — isn't exactly a magic bullet. — It's a bet that President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders will want so desperately …

Discussion: National Review, CNN, Washington Examiner, NationalJournal.com, NewsBusters, ABC News, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, New York Times, The Hill, The Impolitic and The Hill

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

The House GOP's Little Rule Change That Guaranteed A Shutdown — Late on the night of Sept. 30, with the federal government just hours away from shutting down, House Republicans quietly made a small change to the House rules that blocked a potential avenue for ending the shutdown.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Balloon Juice

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Conservatives Clear The Way For Boehner's Six-Week Debt Limit Hike

Discussion: Roll Call, RedState, Hullabaloo and The Fix

Just Sink / The Hill:
White House: No budget talks until government reopens

Discussion: The Plum Line, Reuters and The Week

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Ted Cruz Backs House GOP's Temporary Debt-Limit Plan

Discussion: The Raw Story and Washington Monthly

James Lankford / USA Today:
Rep. Lankford: Republicans seek fairness, less debt

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Lead with Jake Tapper

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
New GOP strategy: Offer deal on debt limit, but keep shutdown fight going

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Associated Press, Hot Air, National Review, Wall Street Journal, The Plum Line, The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh and The Lead with Jake Tapper

Ben Domenech / The Federalist:
Boehner's Smart Debt Ceiling Play

Discussion: Politico, Washington Monthly and The Hill

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
The shutdown just saved the world

Discussion: Politico, National Review, Esquire, Daily Kos and The Huffington Post

Jim Acosta / CNN:
Official: Obama will sign short term debt ceiling extension

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
GOP offers short-term debt-limit increase, but wants negotiations before ending shutdown

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Plum Line, Post Politics, The Hill, The Fix, Wonkblog, Los Angeles Times and Voices

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:
Carney: Obama ‘Happy’ That House Is Willing To Raise Debt Limit

Discussion: Daily Kos

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Gallup: Cruz's favorability rating plunges — Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) favorability rating has collapsed as the public has become more familiar with him, according to a Gallup survey released on Thursday. — The survey found that 26 percent have a favorable view of the Texas Republican, against 36 percent unfavorable.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senate GOP rallies around rival plan on debt ceiling, shutdown — Senate Republicans are unhappy with a House GOP plan to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks without funding the federal government. They are coalescing around their own proposal to pair a short-term debt-ceiling increase …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Damian Paletta / Washington Wire:

House Debt-Ceiling Plan Would Ban ‘Emergency’ Measures — WASHINGTON - The House Republican plan to extend the debt ceiling for six weeks would permanently ban the Treasury Department from using extraordinary measures to avoid default, congressional aides said.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Michael Kinsley / The New Republic:

Obama Should Just Give in to the Republicans — President Obama should give in. Yes, this mess is all the Republicans' fault. Yes, it's outrageous that they can hold the government hostage in order to reargue a law that's been voted on, signed, enacted, and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Taegan Goddard's …, Capitol Report and Shakesville

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

We're not gonna take it! Americans use 1st Amendment to storm shutdown barriers — Taking their lead from the veterans who first pushed through the barricades to visit the World War II Memorial, Americans nationwide are defying the federal government shutdown, tossing aside traffic cones …

Discussion: Hot Air

Matthew Daly / Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: Feds to Let States Pay to Open Parks

Discussion: CNN

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:
Insane Tourists Blatantly Defying The U.S. Government's Demands

Discussion: Wake up America and Hit & Run

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Scarborough: A NYT Editor Told Me Krugman's Column Is ‘Their Biggest Nightmare’ (VIDEO) — MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Thursday that a public editor at the New York Times considers liberal columnist Paul Krugman's work to be an ongoing “nightmare.” — During a segment on “Morning Joe …

Discussion: The Grumpy Economist, Balloon Juice, Shakesville, NewsBusters and Weekly Standard

Niall Ferguson / The Huffington Post:
Krugtron the Invincible, Part 3

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Salon, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite and msnbc.com

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:

Cory Booker's father, 76, dies — Newark Mayor Cory Booker's father died Thursday morning after battling to recover from a recent stroke. His death comes just days before the New Jersey Democrat faces voters in the state's Oct. 16 special Senate election.

Discussion: Politico

Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:
Steve Lonegan: Obama Will Cave On The Shutdown When I Win My Election

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Amy Hollyfield / PolitiFact:

PolitiFact to launch PunditFact, checking pundits and media figures — PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website of the Tampa Bay Times, will soon launch PunditFact, a site dedicated to checking claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers and the hosts and guests of talk shows.

Discussion: TVNewser, Liberaland, Mediaite and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Tim Mak / Washington Examiner:

John McCain regrets ‘wacko birds’ comment, worries about GOP infighting — SENATE REPUBLICAN PARTY TEA PARTY PENNAVE JOHN MCCAIN SEQUESTER — Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he's worried about the Republican Party's future and the infighting that is dividing it, calling efforts …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, Taegan Goddard's …, The PJ Tatler and National Review

Harry J Enten / Guardian:

What the Virginia governor's race tells us about the 2014 midterms — Against trend, Democrat Terry McAuliffe is set to win. After running a ‘strong conservative’, Republicans should take a hint — I'm hesitant to read too much into elections that don't occur during the midterms or presidential election years.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Peter Baker / New York Times:

The Final Insult in the Bush-Cheney Marriage — In the final days of his presidency, George W. Bush sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, chewing gum and staring into the distance as two White House lawyers briefed him on the possible last-minute pardon of I. Lewis Libby. — “Do you think he did it?”

Discussion: emptywheel

Eric Trager / The New Republic:

Obama Just Made a Terrible Mistake on Egypt — In a certain sense, the Obama administration's decision to withhold much of the $1.3 billion in annual aid given to Egypt isn't surprising. U.S. law mandates cutting off aid to countries in which a coup has taken place, and the Egyptian military's ouster …

Discussion: WorldViews, The Dish, Jihad Watch, VodkaPundit and New York Times

ThinkProgress:

Los Angeles Police Dogs Only Bit Blacks And Latinos In The First Six Months Of 2013 — A new report on the Los Angeles Sheriff Department Canine Special Detail finds that the number of minority individuals bitten by police dogs has dramatically increased between 2004 to 2012.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette and The Raw Story

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Conservative Media's Tribal Loyalty Weakens the GOP — Instead of rewarding smart political strategy or policy substance, right-wing outlets celebrate those who are merely in a state of conflict with Democrats or liberals. — The strategy that House Republicans have imprudently embraced in recent weeks has many causes.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and The Dish

Fredrick Kunkle / Washington Post:

McAuliffe among investors in Rhode Island insurance scam that preyed on dying people — Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe was one of dozens of investors with a Rhode Island estate planner charged with defrauding insurers by using the stolen identities of terminally ill people …

Discussion: Politico, The Providence Journal, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Associated Press and Washington Free Beacon