Midday Open Thread

• Why did it take them so long to do this. They could have saved the economy $24 Billion.
  

  After the budget standoff ended in crushing defeat last week and the political damage reports began to pile up for Republicans, one longtime party leader after another stepped forward to chastise their less seasoned, Tea Party-inspired colleagues who drove the losing strategy.

• Who would have thought that the most successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act would occur in a Red State.
  

  FRANKFORT, Ky. — In the windowless nerve center that resembles a campaign war room, Gov. Steven L. Beshear studied projections on a wall showing that 600 people were logged on to the state’s health insurance exchange.

  Some 34,000 had begun applications, and more than 11,000 had signed up for plans, making Kentucky one of the most successful state-run insurance marketplaces under the new federal health care law.

• I am not sure what the hell this story is really saying about the Virginia race but I know it is something.
  

  After 30 years in the Air Force, he’s used to straight talk. But what Anderson, a Republican who represents 80,000 residents of Prince William County in the Virginia legislature, is hearing these days is blunt to the max.

  Knock-knock: “I’m fed up with all of you,” says Tony Smathers, a retired research physicist at the Naval Research Lab.

  Knock-knock: “It must really suck to be a Republican right now,” says a federal worker who, truth be told, is a Republican herself.

  Knock-knock: “Lifelong Republican,” says the woman at the door, a senior executive in the military. “I’m sorry — I have to tell you, I’m not apt to vote for anyone in my own party this year. Can’t do it.”

• You mean they have that much money to pay that big of a settlement? Make no mistake, it is the American citizen who is paying.
  

  At $13 billion, the potential settlement with the Justice Department exceeds estimates in September that JPMorgan would end up paying as much as $11 billion over the allegations. If finalized, the settlement would be the largest the U.S. government has ever made with a single company, according to WSJ.

• Video of the week?
  
• The GOP Civil War is in full vogue.
  

  In dozens of interviews, elected officials, strategists and donors from both wings of the party were unusually blunt in drawing the intraparty battle lines, suggesting that the time for an open feud over the Republican future had arrived.

  “It’s civil war in the G.O.P.,” said Richard Viguerie, a veteran conservative warrior who helped invent the political direct mail business.

• Chuck Todd finally gets one right. And it is a rather important observation. When one talks about moderate Republican remember…
  

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  The oddest thing about this version of the so-called GOP “civil war” is the fact that the divide is over tactics, less about policy

  — Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) October 20, 2013

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