Some GOP Leaders Tee Up Cruz For Blame If There's A Shutdown

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is becoming the face of a possible government shutdown over Obamacare which already has many fellow Republicans bashing him for what they view as an ill-conceived gambit.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Just a week before the federal government could shut down if no agreement is reached to fund it past the end of September, it's anyone's guess whether Democrats and Republicans will avoid plunging over this particular cliff.

More certain, however, is that if a shutdown happens over Obamacare and Republicans wind up taking the heat, many GOP fingers of blame will point squarely at Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Texas Republican will likely become the face of the 2013 shutdown, just as Newt Gingrich became the poster boy of two government shutdowns of the mid-1990s.

What we're seeing, in part, is the lack of loyalty and the distrust that runs in both directions when a group of relatively new members of Congress, with a grassroots political base that scorns the establishment, operates independently of and often at odds with the party's more traditionalist members.

Today, it's the Tea Party movement which helped Cruz get elected. Three decades ago, it was the large post-Watergate class of freshmen Democrats elected in 1974 who drove more senior Democrats crazy with their impertinent demands that party elders be more accountable to them.

There's something else going on as well. As in most workplaces, lawmakers tend to have more respect for colleagues they perceive as work horses than show horses. Cruz is certainly getting a reputation for being more the latter than the former (see David Brooks' comments during a recent PBS Newshour segment.)

Overlaying all that are the very real concerns held by more experienced Republicans that Cruz's defund-Obamacare-or-bust approach, as laid out in his Monday Real Clear Politics op-ed, will do more harm than good for the Republican brand, as in the 1990s.

That's how you get Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader, letting it be known that he parts company with Cruz on strategy. And that's despite McConnell needing to watch his right flank as he runs for re-election.

It's also how you get to Arizona Sen. John McCain tweeting links to opinion pieces from an economist who advised his 2008 presidential campaign and a syndicated conservative radio talk show host. Both share McCain's view that Cruz is the leader of a political-party suicide mission.

And it's how you get Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee swiping at Cruz for being smart enough to have two Ivy League degrees but not politically savvy enough to avoid a fight the Texan can't win and that could cost the party plenty.

It's also how you get Karl Rove saying on Fox News saying that Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, didn't win any friends among Senate Republicans by communicating their Obamacare strategy through the media, not in face-to-face meetings. Rove said:

"... You cannot build a congressional majority in either party for any kind of action, unless you're treating your colleagues with some or certain amount of respect and saying, 'Hey, what do you think of my idea?' and instead, they have dictated to their colleagues through the media, and through public statements, and not consulted them about this strategy at all."

All of which suggests that if Cruz's defund Obamacare strategy leads to a shutdown that backfires on Republicans in a big way, the Texas senator will find a relative lack of Washington Republicans, especially in the Senate, willing to provide him with much, if any, political cover.

Will U.S. And Iranian Leaders Cross Paths At U.N.?

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during an interview with NBC — part of a charm offensive ahead of his visit to the U.N. General Assembly.

Rouzbeh Jadidoleslam/AP

The question of the day isn't what President Obama will speak about when he addresses the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly shortly after 10 a.m. ET.

Among the subjects he'll address are some rather obvious topics: the crisis in Syria, the Middle East peace process, the terrorist attack on a mall in Kenya, and the West's relations with Iran.

On 'Morning Edition': NPR's Ari Shapiro on what President Obama will tell the U.N.

On 'Morning Edition': NPR's Michele Kelemen previews the opening of the U.N. General Assembly

No, the big question is whether Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will cross paths and possibly even exchange words or a handshake.

As NPR's Ari Shapiro said on Morning Edition, it would be "huge" if that happens because the leaders of the U.S. and Iran haven't met since before the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The White House, Ari added, has been "very coy" about whether Obama will see Rouhani.

Ari noted that when a White House spokesman was asked whether the two leaders might encounter each other by happenstance, the official said no such thing "would happen by happenstance."

So, if Obama and Rouhani — who have exchanged letters — do exchange greetings, we should assume it wasn't an accidental meeting and was meant to signal that relations between their two nations might be improving.

Also on Morning Edition, NPR's Michele Kelemen previewed Rouhani's address to the General Assembly. As she said, diplomats are "cautiously optimistic" about the moderate-wounding Rouhani and the prospects for negotiations about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Rouhani is scheduled to address the General Assembly at mid-afternoon Tuesday. A rough agenda with the order of speakers is here. We'll be posting highlights of the two presidents' addresses and other leaders' speeches.