Visual source: Newseum

WaPo:

With a Friday deadline fast approaching, the threat of a shutdown grew more urgent as negotiations over how to extend a payroll tax holiday for 160 million Americans and a separate omnibus spending bill remained stalled.

Republicans are leading the way to the most unpopular Congress ever.

Dana Milbank:

It has become commonplace to say that Washington is broken, but rarely does one get to see all the broken parts perform live and in concert as they did on the Senate floor Wednesday morning.

Paul Kane:

Republican lawmakers, strategists fear Gingrich would jeopardize GOP prospects for control of Congress.

And that’s a problem why?

Jonathan Capehart:

Just before I went on the air last night to discuss the demise of the Trump debate, the political world was rocked. Christine O’Donnell, the 2010 Republican candidate for the Senate from Delaware, who famously declared she was not a witch but who was shellacked by 17 points in the general election by Chris Coons (D), had just endorsed Mitt Romney. What was more interesting and indicative of Romney’s plight was how quickly he embraced O’Donnell’s nod and what he said in doing so. Romney’s statement read like a hostage note.

Jennifer Rubin:

Romney gets to the heart of the matter. “Zany is great in a campaign. It’s great on talk radio. It’s great in print, it makes for fun reading. . . . But in terms of a president, we need a leader, and a leader needs to be someone who can bring Americans together.” And using “zany” is quintessential Romney — he’s a little old fashioned and he could have chosen a much harsher word.

Heavens to Betsy, Mitt! Can’t you perfect your blue collar speech patterns? Those darn upper class androids are so difficult to reprogram….

John Sides and Alex Lundry (h/t Greg Sargent):

We see two main takeaways from this analysis.  First, many Republican voters can be persuaded to support a different candidate.  Our survey has the advantage of actually measuring opinion change, rather than simply asking voters whether their opinions could change.

Second, if enough GOP voters go to the caucus or to the primary voting booth thinking about electability in November, Romney has a better chance of winning the nomination.  But he still may lose one or more of the early states—and if Gingrich wins those states, as current polling suggests he will, then he may seem more electable as a consequence.  In either case, little is set in stone at this point, as plenty of Republican voters seem willing to change their minds.

Daily Kos