The sanity caucus:

Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Lamar Alexander: Facing a Tea Party primary challenge, the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell first stayed out of the fray. But his last-minute deal with Majority Leader Harry Reid prevented the nation’s first default. Yes, McConnell could have acted sooner. But it was McConnell—more than any other Republican—who prevented a default and crushed Cruz’s hopes for a Tea Party insurrection in the Senate. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee also deserve credit for supporting a deal while facing Tea Party primary challenges.

Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Kelly Ayotte: These three Republican senators who hail from states with strong Tea Party movements—Maine, Alaska, and New Hampshire, respectively—spearheaded the effort to embrace a compromise that reopened the government on largely Democratic terms. They are expected to be key players in the fiscal negotiations now scheduled for this fall—and likely to fail.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: In a rare moment of unity, the pro-business labor organization sent a joint letter with the AFL-CIO and United Way to President Obama and Congress urging an end to the shutdown and a possible default.

More important, the chamber and other business lobbies are talking about funding centrist, business-friendly Republican candidates to run against Tea Party firebrands. Next year’s GOP congressional primaries could be just as interesting as the general election.

Grover Norquist: A man loathed by liberals for his no-tax pledge turned on Cruz and his fellow “defunders” with a vengeance. “It’d be a good idea if they stopped referring to other Republicans as Hitler appeasers because they opposed the strategy they put forward which failed,” Norquist told reporters on Wednesday. “I think if you make a mistake as big as what they did, you owe your fellow senators and congressmen a big apology—and your constituents, as well.”

Charles Krauthammer, Jennifer Rubin, and Jonah Goldberg: The conservative commentators for the Washington Post and National Review all openly criticized the tactic of shutting down the government to kill Obamacare. Krauthammer called the approach “nuts” and “really dumb.” Goldberg said the idea “works fantastically well for fundraising when you want to go and run in 2016 for president” but called it a “ludicrous” legislative strategy. Rubin called for the GOP’s “sanity caucus” to save the party.

“The shutdown strategy’s complete flop should demonstrate to all but those determined to create their own counter-reality that the shutdown squad doesn’t represent the views of voters or even of GOP voters,” she wrote on Tuesday.

The kamikaze caucus:

Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes:record-low approval ratings for the GOP should give Murdoch and Ailes pause. So far, there is little sign of this.