• WASHINGTON (AP) -- It was once the backbone of the House Republican majority -- the hard-line stand that brought President Barack Obama to the negotiating table and yielded more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction.
• On Tuesday, it abruptly vanished, the victim of Republican disunity and a president determined not to bargain again.
• During the summer budget negotiations in 2011, House Speaker John Boehner had insisted that any increase in the nation's borrowing limit be matched dollar for dollar with spending cuts. It became the "Boehner Rule," a mantra of fiscal discipline. And while it didn't always live up to its tit-for-tat formula, it helped drive budget talks and kept deficit reduction at the fore of the Republican agenda.
• But there are limits to Republican power, and on Tuesday inevitability finally caught up to the speaker.
• Boehner let Congress vote on a measure to extend the nation's borrowing authority for 13 months without any spending conditions -- a "clean bill" that was an unequivocal victory for Obama. It passed 221-201, with only 28 Republican votes. The Senate still has to approve the extension, but that's considered a mere formality in the Democratic-controlled chamber.
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• ATLANTA (AP) -- Emergency management workers hunkered down in Atlanta waiting to spring into action as rain -- and temperatures -- fell overnight, potentially leading to "catastrophic" ice conditions that forecasters said could hit the region.
• Already, Georgia Power was reporting more than 2,000 power outages early Wednesday throughout the state. Forecasters and officials said that number would probably grow throughout the day. In north Georgia, morning snow was falling. Other areas of the South, from Louisiana to South Carolina, and the Mid-Atlantic

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