CNN's GUT CHECK for October 4, 2013
CNN's GUT CHECK | for October 4, 2013 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle
DYSFUNCTION REIGNS: Grandstanding rhetoric abounded but little tangible progress was evident on Friday, the fourth day of a government shutdown both Republicans and Democrats say they don't want but claim they are unable to stop.
I GET NO RESPECT: CONSERVATIVES SAY THEY NEED IT IN SHUTDOWN DEBATE… The great government shutdown of 2013 is about Obamacare and budget priorities, but it also is about respect. Conservative Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana went further, telling the Washington Examiner that "we're not going to be disrespected." He went on to say, "We have to get something out of this," he said. "And I don't know what that even is."
HOUSE PUSHES PIECEMEAL APPROACH: Boehner and his GOP House leadership said they would proceed with votes, including a rare Saturday session, on piecemeal spending legislation to fund popular programs while the shutdown continues. The bills would fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service, as well as the Head Start program, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said Friday.
“NO DAMN GAME!” At a late morning news conference on Capitol Hill, Speaker John Boehner ratcheted up pressure on President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to negotiate changes to Obamacare as part of any deal to end the shutdown. “This isn’t some damn game,” Boehner proclaimed.
GUT CHECK DVR: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in back to back interviews this Sunday on State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on CNN.
MARKET WATCH: Stocks bounce back after 2-day slide. Potbelly jumps 120% on IPO.
TRAIL TRIVIA
(Answer below)
What event prompted barriers to be installed at driveways around the U.S. Capitol?
MARK (@PrestonCNN), MICHELLE (@mjaconiCNN) & DAN (@DanMericaCNN)
What caught our eye today in politics
With roughly 300,000 federal government employees and many government contractors living in Virginia, it is an understatement to say the state is feeling the effects of the government shutdown.
That is why it should not be a shock that dysfunction in Washington - and the fact that many federal workers are currently furloughed - has become a campaign point in the 2013 race for governor of Virginia.
Republican hopeful Ken Cuccinelli released a 60-second radio ad titled "Shutdown." The ad says his Democratic challenger, Terry McAuliffe, deserves part of the blame for the shutdown.
"It’s a failure of leadership: A government shutdown, dealing a blow to thousands of Virginia families,” the narrator says. “All because Washington politicians failed to come together to find a solution. And Terry McAuliffe deserves part of the blame."
Not to be outdone, McAuliffe released an ad titled "Over the Brink" that links Cuccinelli with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a man many blame for engineering the shutdown.
“Ted Cruz’s Tea Party shutdown is hurting Virginia," the ad says. "And how does Ken Cuccinelli feel about shutdowns?"
Cruz and Cuccinelli will be at an event together on Saturday. Although Democrats are charging that they are campaigning together, the Cuccinelli campaign says the two Republicans were invited separately to the Family Foundation fundraiser.
"Family Foundation asked us months ago to come to their event and we did and they also asked Ted Cruz and we are both attending," a Cuccinelli aide tells Gut Check. "That is all it is. It is not a rally. It is a fundraiser for the Family Foundation."
The race to become the Old Dominion's next governor has been divisive, and continues to capture our attention as the two hopefuls try to use the shutdown to their advantage.
the LEDE
Did you miss it?
Leading CNNPolitics: CNN keeps count: More members decide to donate their shutdown paychecks
As of Friday at 2:00 p.m. ET., 43 senators have said they are donating to charity or giving back to the Treasury Department their salaries, while 15 are not accepting a paycheck and four are undecided. In the House, 52 representatives say they're donating to charity or the Treasury, while 81 are not accepting a paycheck and three are undecided. – Dan Merica, Laura Koran and Ashley Killough
Leading Drudge: Let's Make A Deal
Senior Republicans in Congress, frustrated over their inability to strike a deal to reopen the government, began shifting from their drive to undercut the 2010 health-care law, which has been the central element of the dispute, toward a broader budget deal. – Janet Hook and Patrick O’Connor
Leading HuffPo: Get It Together
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says no progress has been made toward ending the government shutdown because "it's very hard to negotiate with the Republicans when they can't negotiate with themselves." Pelosi says, quote, "They can't say, 'Our first premise is you have to overturn the Affordable Care Act.' " – The Associated Press
Leading Politico: Bad blood: Four feuding leaders
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid privately told fellow Democratic senators this week what he really thought of Speaker John Boehner. “He’s a coward,” Reid angrily said, referring to Boehner’s private push for federal health care contributions for lawmakers and their staff. Boehner later backed legislation to end those subsidies in order to win points with House GOP conservatives. “He’s a coward!” Reid exclaimed. – John Bresnahan and Manu Raju
Leading The New York Times: With No New Plan, Boehner Makes Angry Plea on Shutdown
Four days into the crisis, Congress appeared no closer to a resolution, and Speaker John A. Boehner urged President Obama to negotiate over his health care law. – Jonathan Weisman and Ashley Parker
HOT SOTS
The political bites of the day
- Republican tries to get Obama to the table - with cookies -
REPUBLICAN REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN OF TENNESSEE IN AN INTERVIEW WITH CNN: “I’ll bake him cookies. We are greeting him with open arms and an invitation. We have been hopeful that on behalf of the American people and future generations he would agree to sit with us at a negotiating table and he would agree to work these issues out.”
Gut Check Side Note: Blackburn told CNN after her interview that she has the “best chocolate chip recipe, full of butter and honey. We call them amoebas because they spread everywhere.”
- Durbin to Cruz: That crossed the line -
REPUBLICAN SEN. TED CRUZ OF TEXAS IN A SPEECH ON THE SENATE FLOOR: “I guess now the Democratic Party has been the party of Obamacare, by Obamacare and for Obamacare all of the time and every other priority recedes. So veterans are told your concerns do not matter unless we can use you to force Obamacare on the American people. Reserve military members are told your concerns do not matter unless we can use you as a hostage to force Obamacare on the American people.”
DEMOCRATIC SEN. DICK DURBIN OF ILLINOIS IN A SPEECH ON THE SENATE FLOOR: “I would say to my colleague from Texas some of the language which he has used in this debate relative to impugning the motives of other members may have crossed the line. I am not going to raise it at this point but I ask him to be careful in the future.”
- Rhetoric continues to be colorful in the government shutdown debate -
DEMOCRATIC REP. JIM MCDERMOTT OF WASHINGTON IN AN INTERVIEW WITH CNN: “The speaker and the tea party have lost. They said we are going to stop Obamacare. They have lost. The president has remained resolute through every effort they have made. And so now they're flopping around like dead fish in the bottom of the boat, trying to figure out what to do next.”
REPUBLICAN SEN. MARCO RUBIO OF FLORIDA IN A SPEECH ON THE SENATE FLOOR: “You know, Mr. President you are not the chairman of the Democratic Party. You are the president of the United States. Act like the president of the United States! Rise above that stuff. Your job is to bring this nation together. I know people are going to say things about you, you don’t like. It comes with the territory. You have got to rise above that stuff.”
TOP TWEETS
What stopped us in 140 characters or less
Johanna Barr (@JohannaBarr)
Obama & Biden currently eating lunch at Taylor Gourmet, underneath @HuffPostPol office, & a bunch of us are trapped across the street.
Vaughn Sterling (@vplus)
Biden to Obama at @Taylor_Gourmet: "I'm not giving you my cookie." Obama: "That's a tasty cookie right there"
Brendan Buck (@Brendan_Buck)
Common ground: John Boehner really likes Taylor Gourmet.
CNN (@CNN)
Siri was introduced to us on this day in 2011. Ever wonder who the person behind the voice is? Meet the real Siri: http://on.cnn.com/19YOEht
Victor Hernandez (@ToTheVictor)
Favorite part about 'Siri woman discovered' story is how the CNN writer found her while covering another story: http://bit.ly/1bw0XIM
Gerald F Seib (@GeraldFSeib)
Cancellation of Obama's Asia trip underscores international risks in DC dysfunction, which are widespread. http://on.wsj.com/19QM5zl via @WSJ
Jennifer Berry Hawes (@JenBerryHawes)
Poll: Catholics agree with Pope Francis that church is ‘obsessed’ with select few issues http://shar.es/KBumZ via @sharethis
Abby Livingston (@RollCallAbby)
My dream interview. Fitness guru Richard Simmons to Congress: You Can Cope if You Have Hope: http://roll.cl/GDbQtZ
TRIVIA ANSWER from @DanMericaCNN
On Thursday, a woman in a car crashed into barricades at the White House and then proceeded to head to the U.S. Capitol Building in a chase that ended with the woman being shot dead.
A 1983 bombing accelerated the move toward tighter Capitol security, “ushering in measures that have become familiar - and others that remain little known, even secret," David Stout of the New York Times wrote in 1998.
Barriers were installed after a bomb was detonated on the second floor of the Senate side of the Capitol - just 30 feet away from the Senate floor. No one was injured during the bombing - for which three Communists later plead guilty - but the need for increased security became evident after the event.
GUT CHECK WINNER’S CIRCLE
(why aren’t you in it)
No correct answers to today’s Gut Check trivia question. Better luck next week.
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What they want is for the country to fail because all they care about is who is our President and these "Christians" in name only are desperate.
Their Canadian leader is a foreign terrorist in their midst and is probably as close as we will ever get, I hope to have a terrorist the likes of bin laden in our government.
"Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana went further, telling the Washington Examiner that "we're not going to be disrespected." He went on to say, "We have to get something out of this," he said. "And I don't know what that even is."
________________________
brilliant. The GOP takes down the government, but can't quite say why.
"Poll: Catholics agree with Pope Francis that church is ‘obsessed’ with select few issues"
Poll: Americans agree with each other that TeaPers are obsessed with one issue ... election results 2012.
The point Dems should be making all weekend long: The Senate has voted and followed procedure on every single CR the House has sent them, but Boehner is refusing to allow a vote on the clean CR.
I'm going to say this slowly because it is at the very root of and illustrates so very well how very messed up the GOP/Teatrolls are and how much they despise democracy unless it will result in what they want...the reason Boehner won't allow the vote is BECAUSE. IT. WOULD. PASS.
That's right. BECAUSE. IT. WOULD. PASS. Let that sink in for a minute. A piece of legislation that the majority of this country wants passed and would pass with a majority of their representatives voting for it is being held hostage precisely because it would enact the majority's will, thwarting the minority's ideological agenda. There could be nothing more un-democratic (unless we want to shift the conversation to GOP/Teatroll voter suppression efforts haha).
"I guess now the Democratic Party has been the party of Obamacare, by Obamacare and for Obamacare all of the time and every other priority recedes."
Right, because it's Obama and the Dems who have voted 46 times to repeal, defund or destroy the ACA in some way, shape or form and have spent the past 5 years demagoguing it relentlessly while making its destruction a requirement of funding the gov't and avoiding a default on the nation's debts. The Teatroll penchant for projection is truly astounding.
don,t worry folks they are still getting their checks -your sacrifice will be worth NOT
I've been watching McConnell and his state. Here's some bad news for Rand and Mitch:
Kentucky: Kentucky is the only Southern state that’s chosen to participate fully in health care reform by both expanding Medicaid and operating a state-level exchange. So far, it’s paying off. Between midnight and 10:30 am on Tuesday, Kentucky’s website had more than 24,000 visitors. The employees working to manage the exchange processed more than 1,000 applications for health insurance by 9:30 am. By the end of the day, 2,902 people had applied for coverage and another 4,600 people had started the application process.
Most of the country already disrespect them. But then they haven't had any respect for them in a couple of decades. Respect is earned. The GOTP has not earned it, and should not expect it. Moon a congressman today!!! Show him the respect he does deserve.
Mr. Stutzman our forefathers had the good sense to establish a republic ‘tempered’ with democratic ideals and with the passage of time has allowed people of many different classes to live cohesively in one country. Today those accomplishments are under attack by a wealthy group of libertarians with extreme political views wanting to return this country to a pre-depression era devastating the middle and lower classes, poor, elderly and infirmed. Apparently, they’re intention is to inflict as much damage as it takes to get their desired results and you’ve chosen to help them to accomplish their goal.
You voted to shut down the government with no regard for the tens of thousands of families across this country burdened once again with hardship so you could deny millions of families across this country health insurance. Now you complain that you don't get respect. You, Mr. Stutzman, need to extend respect to get respect. BTW, I'm from Indiana and people here aren't happy with these games.