White House press secretary Josh Earnest called Tuesday's filibuster in the Senate of a bill that would have thrown momentum behind President Obama's free trade agenda "a procedural snafu," repeating the phrase 10 times.

To be sure, the vote was not on president's Pacific free-trade initiative itself, which is still being negotiated. Instead, the legislation would have ultimately force lawmakers to vote yes-or-no on the free-trade initiative without making any changes. The White House says that is crucial to give foreign countries confidence in the U.S. bargaining position. And there is a chance it could still advance.

Yet if the vote was just a snafu, though, it was a very rare kind of snafu. Presidents almost never confront filibusters from members of their own party, as happened Tuesday when Democrats stood in the way of the legislation. The last such filibuster was in 2007, when Republicans opposed President Bush on immigration reform, Sahil Kapur reports for Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, it's not clear just how this snafu will get untangled. A few Democrats are willing to abandon the filibuster, but they are insisting that the trade agreement include language to stop foreign countries from manipulating their currencies to gain an advantage over U.S. exporters.

That's a nonstarter with the White House and with Republicans. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who has been negotiating over the legislation for Republicans, told The Washington Post that there is "no compromise that can be reached that is going to link" free trade and currency manipulation.

What's in Wonkbook: 1) Free-trade filibuster 2) Opinions, including McKibben on Arctic drilling 3) A fatal Amtrak wreck in Philadelphia, and more

Chart of the day: The average Mormon has 3.4 children, compared to just 1.6 children among atheists. Christopher Ingraham in The Washington Post.

1. Top story: Senate blocks free-trade authority

It was just a procedural vote, but it revealed substantive disagreements. "The Senate vote was a sharp blow to the president’s efforts to win approval for a new Asia-Pacific trade bill that has emerged as a top agenda item for Obama. Only one Democratic senator, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, voted with the president Tuesday. Administration officials and Republican leaders immediately said they would bring a measure back to the Senate floor. ... But in the Senate, the measure's failure seemed to be more than a procedural glitch. The trade accord has sparked a Democratic revolt and laid bare a spat between Obama and liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). And it has embittered labor union leaders who feel they helped elect Obama and have received little for their efforts." Mike DeBonis and Steven Mufson in The Washington Post.

At least Obama had the support of the GOP presidential field. "The trade debate presents a delicate balance for Republican candidates who have built their campaigns on assailing the Obama administration on everything from health care to foreign policy. Suddenly, they have found themselves pressured to support Obama out of commitment to free trade and at the behest of businesses key to their early success in 2016. The tightrope was perhaps most clearly exhibited Tuesday by Sen. Rand Paul. ... Paul voted to advance the bill, even after he told his leadership that he was a 'no'... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had made courting Paul's support a key goal as it lobbied members to get behind the legislation." Lauren Fox in National Journal.

WEIGEL: A spat between Warren and Obama got the media's attention. "The new story, the one that drew out the press, was a feud between the president and Warren. Inside the Capitol, a few minutes from the rally, Ohio's Brown was egging that on. He told reporters that President Obama had insulted Warren by saying she was acting like a politician and 'referring to her as first name when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps.' It hardly mattered that Obama had sometimes called Brown by his first name... The inside game, which the president remarkably stumbled into, had bought the progressives unexpected time and media attention." Bloomberg.

CORN: This vote wasn't really about Obama and Warren, though. "Obama's problems are not just with Warren, the Massachusetts populist and progressive darling. Every member of his own party but one voted to stymie a vote on the fast-track bill Obama has been pushing. ... It turns out that Warren was not holding a marginal position, as the White House had contended. The president was." Mother Jones.

MILBANK: The balance of power among Democrats has shifted. "A seemingly unstoppable coalition of the powerful assembled to advance the Trans Pacific Partnership trade bill: A Democratic president aligned with the Republican majority in both chambers of Congress and the full lobbying might of Corporate America. But on Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Democratic minority delivered a surprise defeat to President Obama... However the trade debate is resolved, Tuesday’s defeat in the Senate is likely to be a turning point, because it shows that the populists are now firmly in control of the Democratic Party. Anger over growing inequality has reached critical mass, and a backlash has begun against a political system that has, over the last three decades, allowed 100 percent of all income growth to go to the wealthiest 10 percent." The Washington Post.

GALSTON: Hillary Rodham Clinton will have to choose a side. "Combined with evidence of stagnant social mobility, the failure of economic growth to yield solid gains for most working Americans has spawned a quest for explanations. Democrats on the left focus on the conservative political mobilization of recent decades; policies that undermine labor unions; failed financial regulations; corporate self-dealing; and one-sided trade treaties that disregard the interests of ordinary Americans. Center-left Democrats emphasize technological change and globalization (as distinct from treaties); a mediocre educational system; a slowdown in innovation; and the failure of the public and private sectors to invest adequately in the future. ... It is on this contested terrain that Mrs. Clinton must carve out not just specific economic policies, but an economic framework and narrative as well." The Wall Street Journal.

This isn't about free trade, writes Nobel laureate in economist Joseph E. Stiglitz. "The United States and the world are engaged in a great debate about new trade agreements. Such pacts used to be called 'free-trade agreements'; in fact, they were managed trade agreements, tailored to corporate interests... These agreements go well beyond trade, governing investment and intellectual property as well, imposing fundamental changes to countries' legal, judicial, and regulatory frameworks, without input or accountability through democratic institutions." Project Syndicate.

2. Top opinions

EZRA KLEIN: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has learned the wrong lessons from the war in Iraq. "The Iraq War was a disaster — but it wasn't just the faulty intelligence. The war never would have happened if the Bush administration had realistically estimated the cost, the military commitment, or the reaction of the Iraqi people. The basic theory of war that made the invasion seem like a good idea was wrong, and America — and Iraq — paid dearly for the error. But Jeb Bush has apparently learned little from his brother's mistakes. He has disowned the intelligence that led to the war in Iraq, but not the foreign policy thinking that got us there. That's worrying." Vox.

BARRY: State laws make it hard to hire good teachers. "The author Jonathan Franzen, who received a B.A. in German with an English minor and once taught fiction writing at Swarthmore College and Columbia University, wouldn't be eligible to teach American literature to middle school students in New York. Similarly, New York state is working to recruit computer science teachers, yet if Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg applied for jobs, New York state would tell the Harvard dropouts to finish college first -- and after that, they would need to complete a master's degree to obtain a permanent certification. ... Principals ought to have the flexibility to hire teachers based on their ability and experience, not their academic credits." Bloomberg View.

McKIBBEN: Obama made the wrong call in advancing Shell Oil's Arctic drilling permit. "A quarter century ago, scientists warned that if we kept burning fossil fuel at current rates we’d melt the Arctic. The fossil fuel industry (and most everyone else in power) ignored those warnings, and what do you know: The Arctic is melting, to the extent that people now are planning to race yachts through the Northwest Passage, which until very recently required an icebreaker to navigate. Now, having watched the Arctic melt, does Shell take that experience and conclude that it’s in fact time to invest heavily in solar panels and wind turbines? No. Instead, it applies to be first in line to drill for yet more oil in the Chukchi Sea, between Alaska and Siberia." The New York Times.

A carbon tax would be worth the cost to any sensible investor, argues libertarian scholar Jerry Taylor. "The issues associated with climate change are not that different from the risk issues we deal with in the financial markets every day. We know there’s a risk, we don’t know how big the risk is, we’re not entirely sure about all of the parameters, but we know it’s there. And we know that it’s a low-probability, high-impact risk. So what do we do about that in our financial markets? Well, if it’s a non-diversifiable risk, we know that people pay plenty of money to avoid it." Interview transcript. David Roberts at Vox.

3. In case you missed it

At least six are dead after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia. "The derailment, which occurred about 9:30 p.m., appeared to be the worst railroad accident in the busy northeast corridor in many years. No cause was known immediately. ... Federal investigators were sent to the scene, in a Philadelphia neighborhood northeast of the 30th Street Station. Rail service between New York and Philadelphia was halted. Amtrak said early Wednesday morning that modified Amtrak service will be provided between Washington and Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and New York and Boston. There will be no Amtrak service between New York and Philadelphia." Martin Weil, Julie Zauzmer and Lindsey Bever in The Washington Post.

A dean at the University of Virginia is suing Rolling Stone for defamation. "Nicole Eramo is seeking more than $7.5 million in damages from Rolling Stone; its parent company, Wenner Media; and Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the investigative journalist who wrote the explosive account of sexual assault on the campus in Charlottesville. The magazine retracted the article after news organizations and the Columbia University journalism school found serious flaws in it. Eramo, who is the university’s chief administrator dealing with sexual assaults, argues in the lawsuit that the article destroyed her credibility, permanently damaged her reputation and caused her emotional distress. She assailed the account as containing numerous falsehoods that the magazine could have avoided if it had worked to verify the story of its main subject, a student named Jackie who alleged she was gang-raped in 2012 and that the university mishandled her case." T. Rees Shapiro in The Washington Post.

Verizon proposes to buy AOL in a $4.4 billion acquisition. "This deal is about helping Verizon, the biggest U.S. wireless carrier, crack mobile video, a segment that consumers increasingly love and advertisers covet. And it’s a sign of how Verizon is following the path blazed by its rivals — Comcast’s purchase of NBCUniversal in 2011, AT&T’s current bid for DirecTV — as the companies that provide the pipes bulging with video scramble to find ways to make money from it, too. And in this area, AOL, the long-dethroned king of the Internet, has reemerged as a quiet standout." Todd C. Frankel, Brian Fung and Andrea Peterson in The Washington Post.

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