Senate Passes Bill to End Fiscal Impasse  —  WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans conceded defeat Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law, agreeing to end a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and extend federal borrowing power to avert …

Tea Party's Image Turns More Negative  —  Ted Cruz's Popularity Soars among Tea Party Republicans  —  The Tea Party is less popular than ever, with even many Republicans now viewing the movement negatively.  Overall, nearly half of the public (49%) has an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party, while 30% have a favorable opinion.

McConnell Deal Includes Kentucky Kickback  —  Americans are familiar with the “Cornhusker Kickback” that U.S. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) got in exchange for his vote on Obamacare.  —  Well now U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has an Obamacare earmark of his own.

Matt Drudge Predicts Pelosi Will Be Next Speaker  —  Conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge seemed to suggest Wednesday that Democrats will win back control of the House of Representatives next year.  —  In a message to his more than 200,000 followers on Twitter, Drudge predicted …

Booker wins New Jersey Senate race  —  Newark Mayor Cory Booker won the New Jersey Senate special election on Wednesday night in an unsurprising finale to a surprisingly contentious race.  —  The Associated Press called the race for Booker, who led Lonegan 56 percent to 43 percent, with 52 percent of precincts reporting.

‘Lying To The American People’: House Conservatives Blame Press For Shutdown Surrender  —  House conservatives conjured a familiar bogeyman Wednesday to explain their imminent surrender in the government shutdown fight: the liberal media.  —  Their tactics weren't to blame.

U.S. eavesdropping agency chief, top deputy expected to depart soon  —  (Reuters) - The director of the U.S. National Security Agency and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in a development that could give President Barack Obama a chance to reshape the eavesdropping agency.

S&P: Shutdown cost economy at least $24B  —  The government shutdown cost the nation's economy at least $24 billion and shaved 0.6 percent off the nation's economic growth, according to new analysis from Standard & Poor's.  —  With a deal seemingly headed for the finish line …

College Women: Stop Getting Drunk  —  It's closely associated with sexual assault.  And yet we're reluctant to tell women to stop doing it.  —  In one awful high-profile case after another—the U.S. Naval Academy; Steubenville, Ohio; now the allegations in Maryville, Mo.—we read about a young woman …

Shutdown hurts GOP Senate chances  —  New PPP polls of 6 key Senate races that will determine control of the body after next year's election finds voters extremely unhappy about the government shutdown.  As a result Republicans trail in 5 of the 6 key races and are tied in the 6th.

Fox's Keith Ablow: Obama's Grandma 'Didn't Trust People of Color,' So He's Taking It Out on America  —  Psychiatrist and Fox News Medical A-Team member Keith Ablow engaged in some psychoanalysis of President Barack Obama on Wednesday's Fox & Friends.  He said that Obama sees himself as the …

GOP shutdown disaster could give Dems a big lift  —  With the news breaking that John Boehner will allow a House vote on a Senate deal to end the crisis, meaning Republicans surrendered with nothing to show for weeks of crisis brinkmanship, how does that impact GOP fortunes heading into 2014?