Posted on 02/13/2014 4:51:45 PM PST by SeekAndFind
There’s no man or woman in red-state America these days with more power than Cruz to set a new conservative litmus test. But c’mon: How many of you need to be formally warned at this point by your favorite Republican that the House is looking to sell out border hawks on immigration reform? It’s like blaming Rand Paul for turning libertarians against the NSA. He plays a useful role in bringing attention to the issue, but those people turned on their own initiative ages ago. Same here.
Cruz won’t mind being blamed for this one, though.
House Republicans who supported the “principles” of immigration reform floated by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, late last month grumbled Tuesday that the plan was dead on arrival because Cruz blasted it as “amnesty,” spurring a blizzard of negative phone calls to House Republicans…
Later that day [on January 30th, when the House GOP released its immigration principles], while Boehner was closeted with colleagues miles from the nation’s capital, Cruz used back-to-back television appearances to invoke the politically charged word “amnesty” to characterize the legalization offered by Boehner’s plan.
By the time the GOP caucus broke up and Boehner headed back to Capitol Hill on Jan. 31, the House speaker was backtracking. Republican lawmakers so distrusted President Obama’s readiness to enforce any immigration law that GOP lawmakers would not support immigration reform before the 2014 midterm congressional elections in November, Boehner declared.
Asked about his influential remarks Tuesday, Cruz said the Boehner plan was “inconsistent with the rule of law” and “a political mistake,” adding that he was “glad to see Republicans in the House agreed.”
Would any tea-party Republicans in the House have embraced the leadership’s immigration plan if Cruz had kept quiet? It’s not pressure from big-name conservatives that keeps them in line, it’s the fact that they come from overwhelmingly red districts and know what backing amnesty would mean for their primary chances. The more interesting thought experiment is what would have happened if Cruz had shocked the world and declared that Boehner’s plan sounded promising. That might have shaken loose some conservative votes for amnesty; there’s no sturdier political cover on the right at the moment than being able to say that Ted Cruz supports your position. I wonder if he’s ever tempted to do it, if only to bigfoot rivals like Rubio and Rand Paul by showing them he can bring righties around on an immigration deal to an extent that they can’t. Or maybe he doubts that he even has that much cachet. If Rubio’s tea-party cred could be incinerated in one stroke by trying to lead on this issue, why on earth would Cruz touch it?
His next conservative venture, incidentally, is the State Marriage Defense Act, which he introduced with Mike Lee yesterday. That’s a response both to the Supreme Court’s Windsor decision last year, striking down part of DOMA, and to Holder’s announcement earlier this week that the DOJ will begin acknowledging same-sex marriages as legitimate for federal legal purposes (e.g., invoking the spousal privilege during federal trials) regardless of whether the underlying state law recognizes them or not. Cruz’s and Lee’s bill would force the feds to follow state marriage law as guidance on that. It’s going nowhere in the Senate, needless to say, but it’s a smart bit of politics in both tackling a subject of social conservative concern and proposing a federalist solution to it that centrists can live with.
Good for him! Someone needs to have some cojones in DC.
bkmk
I would love for Cornyn not to get that 50%!
You are right, we need to stand behind one solid conservative and not look for the ‘perfect’ one.
Correct. We need to find the most conservative candidate capable of getting elected and support him or her and urge all the OTHER conservatives who are thinking of running to get behind him or her and not run by themselves.
Cruz is showing an awful lot of finesse and he keeps out playing the leadership in full. Cruz will make a great president some day — even today, however I think the party and the Nation need him as Senate Majority leader.
If McConnell squeeks by in ‘14 elections, and the GOP takes the Senate ... Cruz has a great chance at unseating him for majority leader but probably won’t because I suspect the Senate will back McConnell despite being enamored with Cruz. However, if McConnell loses, Cruz is a shoo in.
Good on ya Ted!!!
Ya don’t take flak unless you’re over the target, Senator.
Ted Cruz, 2016
I’m writing him in no matter WHO they put on the ballot.
“..House Republicans ... grumbled Tuesday that the plan was dead on arrival because Cruz blasted it as “amnesty...”
Does anyone else besides me read that as “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! We didn’t get our way!!”???
Ted Cruz, 2016
Write-in, no matter WHO they try to foist on us.
Howie:
Pinging you to my post at 87 and 88!!
OORAh...
Why Rand Paul? The energy is great with that combination, and Rand Paul brings a more libertarian streak to the mix, instead of the corporate globalist sellouts.
Git Some, Brother!
Rah!
I am writing Ted Cruz in. With Scott Walker, Mike Lee, or Rand Paul as VP.
No more RINOs, or candidates who are afraid to stand on their principles.
This Texas Tea Party Senator walks the walk and talks the talk, and throws up a giant middle finger to the RINO/Dem cabal at every opportunity.
Tired of the Clown Show. I want an America-First Candidate for once.
TED CRUZ 2016
Ted Cruz, 2016
Write-in, no matter WHO they try to foist on us.
***
I like that idea.
They don't WANT to control the borders. They want to control legal citizens by use of the IRS, NSA, EPA, and whatever alphabet Jack Booted Thug agency they deem necessary.
Stay armed and stay vigilante. Revolt is coming.
Is this the new champion of sane immigration now? The guy who pushed for a lemon not long ago? Is this a ‘flip flop’ champion? I tell you, who the heck can we trust? I remember when he was the poster boy for ‘comprehensive insani-gration’.
Military markings are not what you have to be worried of. Try black bulletproof vans with tinted windows.
Uh, are you talking about Marco Rubio???????????
Sounds to me like you’re confusing Ted Cruz with Rubio.
Can’t you just inform yourself before accusing Cruz of something that Rubio did?
How are they going to stop us?
They can’t. If he gets the votes, he’s in.
“...will be met with a certain degree of hostility....”
And it won’t be “Hola Amigo!”, I’ll bet...
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