News Nuggets 1318

DAYEE PICTURE: A cafe in Japan called the Horse's Mouth.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Obama Wins from Politico
"What’s different this time, senior administration officials said, is that the playing field for Democrats was smaller. Obama was just playing for the status quo. The strategy was simple, but the plan for executing it wasn’t."

Obama's Stubborn Victory (Amy Davidson) from the New Yorker
"...  If the G.O.P. were a sunny, well-run juggernaut, it might push through policies that do a lot of damage to the country. But a divided, sour, reckless party that, as George Packer and Jelani Cobb point out, trades on racial bitterness ever more explicitly can poison our political culture in a way that should give no one pleasure."

Senate Republicans: GOP Didn't Gain Anything By Forcing Shutdown from the Huffington Post
"None of the aforementioned Republicans would say whether they think Cruz and other tea party lawmakers have learned anything from the debacle. "I don't know. You'll have to interview them," McCain said. "I'm sure they're always happy to be interviewed." Still, some pointed out how flawed the plan from the far right was from the beginning."

Republicans Shut Down the Government for Nothing (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"After two weeks of closed government and a debt-limit freakout, a deal is on the horizon—and the GOP has little to show for the crisis caused by its demands."

The Tea Party Shut Down the Government and All They Got Were These Lousy Poll Numbers (Alex Seitz-Wald) from the National Journal
"Support for the conservative grassroots movement has plunged to an all-time low, as even GOP voters have soured."

For House Conservatives, a Time to Face Up to Defeat (David A. Fahrenthold) from the Washington Post
"Hard-core conservatives hoped to take down Obamacare, but at last, there was nothing to do but wait. And then lose. ... For House conservatives, Wednesday was a day unlike many others in the giddy period since Republicans took the House in 2010. They had lost all control of the standoff ... “I’m going to commit candor here,” Massie said. “I think we have less leverage on the next CR, and on the next debt-limit [debate], than we do right now.”"

Conservatives Learned The Wrong Lessons From The Shutdown Debacle from Talking Points Memo
"... what they're taking away from the 2013 crisis is: They didn't go far enough.  They aren't angry with Speaker John Boehner for ultimately capitulating to Democratic demands. They're frustrated with their more mainstream colleagues who put him in that position."
No surprise.  This will feed the internecine firefight that is now brewing for the GOP's 2014 election primary season.  Don't be surprised if the GOP House and Senate primaries next year are the UGLIEST and MOST EXPENSIVE (for off-year elections) in living memory.  

Can We Govern Now? (E.J. Dionne) from the National Memo
"As long as Boehner permits this lunatic fringe — there’s no other way to describe it — to have a virtual veto power in his caucus, we will descend into chaos again and again. And as long as more middle-of-the-road conservatives hang back because they fear primary challenges, scoldings from Heritage Action, or occasional insults from the talk-show barons, the Republican Party will remain in receivership."

Will Debt-Ceiling Extortion Ever Return? (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"The surrender terms negotiated by Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have an interesting provision, which would change the way Congress votes on the next debt-limit increase: ... Instead of needing Congress to approve a debt-ceiling increase, Congress has to override an Obama veto in order to prevent it. So now it would take a two-thirds vote to trigger the kind of terrifying failure that before could have been triggered by a 50 percent–plus–one vote. That mechanism would utterly defang the debt ceiling, returning it to its historical place as an opportunity for ineffectual posturing rather than extortion."

Winners and Losers of the Government Shutdown (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"... with an event as all-consuming and high profile as the shutdown has been in the last three weeks in Washington, it’s ridiculous not to see some winners and, yes, some losers emerging."

Losing a Lot to Get Little (Jeremy Peters) from the New York Times 
"... in a futile campaign to strip the law of federal money, the party focused harsh scrutiny on its own divisions, hurt its national standing and undermined its ability to win concessions from Democrats. Then they surrendered almost unconditionally."

Boehner and his Majority are in Disarray from the Washington Post
"The outcome left the speaker without any clear plan for governing or for unifying a wickedly fractured GOP caucus that has repeatedly divided when it needed to unite.  ...  The inability to do that has left the House GOP effectively incapable of exerting power beyond the walls of HC5, the cramped Capitol basement meeting room where the Republicans usually gather once a week — and convened almost daily during these tense few weeks."

Republican Collapse (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"This is an embarrassment for the country, yes, but it’s also an embarrassment for the Republican Party that lays bare their motives, tactics and intention. It may not be so easy for voters to forget this come next November. As the conservative Matt Drudge tweeted on Wednesday: “Speaker Pelosi Part 2: Opening Jan 5, 2015.” If only."

GOP Shutdown Disaster Could Give Dems a Big Lift (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"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? ... In an interview, DCCC chair Steve Israel told me a number of new recruits would be announced in coming days, thanks to GOP damage sustained in the crisis."

That's How You Treat a Bully! (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"GOP is finally surrendering. But it will try more extortion soon -- and Democrats will have to stand just as strong."

Poll: Rift Forming Between Tea Party, Rest of GOP (Aaron Blake) from the Washington Post
"The poll shows moderate Republicans' views of the tea party have dropped from 46 percent favorable in June to 27 percent favorable today -- a 19-point decline in just four months time."

Finally! The Republican Fever Is Broken (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast
"Today’s deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling is a complete and utter loss for Republicans. Has the far right finally learned its lesson? ... It was clear, from the start, that Boehner’s heart wasn’t in the shutdown or the fight to defund the Affordable Care Act. But now his caucus has lost its desire to fight as well."
I think Bouie is mistaken here -- the fever will last until (at minimum) 2016.  More brutal thumpings will be in order to get the Tea Party fanatics to even begin truly reassessing their strategies and tactics.

The ‘Gotham Theory’ of the Republican Party (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"The theory goes like this: The party can’t sustain itself in its current state. It needs to bottom out in order to begin rebuilding successfully. “Sometimes when a system is broken, it’s better to let it/push it to failure rather than prop it up and let it limp along,” ... The theory is that Gotham has fallen too far to be saved and that the best thing that can be done for it in the long run is to hasten its demise."

A Tea Party Purge Among the GOP (Harold Meyerson) from the Washington Post 
"Like the Stalinists and the Jacobins, today’s tea party zealots have purified their movement — not by executing but by driving away those Republicans who don’t share their enthusiasm for wrecking their country if they can’t compel the majority to embrace their notions. ... Also like the Stalinists and Jacobins, today’s Republicans devour their past leaders."

John Boehner's Shutdown Endgame: "The Final Spasm of a Corpse" (Noam Scheiber) from the New Republic
".. don’t mistake it for anything other than what it was: the final spasm of a still-fresh corpse, the corpse being the GOP’s legitimacy as a political entity, to say nothing of its negotiating position in this particular conflict."

Congressman Says GOP Can’t Pass Immigration Reform Because Obama Will Destroy Them from Think Progress
"President Obama has made clear he intends to redouble efforts on immigration reform. Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), once a key Republican in immigration talks, does not intend on making that easy.  ... His theory why Obama will pivot to immigration reform is to deliver a final blow to Republicans reeling from the latest fiscal crises: “I think what he has done over the past two and a half weeks — he’s trying to destroy the Republican party. I think that anything we do right now with this president on immigration will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destroy the Republican party and not to get good policies.”"

BOATING NUGGET!!
The Super Yacht of the Future: Stunning Ship with a Skeletal Structure that's Set to be on Every Billionaire's Shopping List from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The stunning superyacht has been designed by multiple-award-winning Iraqi-born Briton Dame Zaha Hadid.  Dame Zaha was the brains behind the Aquatic Centre for the London Olympics and Glasgow's Riverside Museum.  She has teamed up with German shipbuilders Blohm+Voss to create a fleet of six different superyachts."

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