Andrea Mitchell: Senate’s Dislike of Cruz Should Have Made Candidacy ‘a Non-Starter’

Newsbusters ^ | November 26, 2015 | Curtis Houck

[Isara]

Closing out the Wednesday edition of Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell remarked how the presidential candidacy of Republican Senator Ted Cruz (Tex) would have been sunk and declared “a non-starter” under so-called normal circumstances due to so many of Cruz’s Senate colleagues having a disdain for him.

Mitchell was speaking with former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman and MSNBC political analyst Michael Steele when she exclaimed: “The conventional wisdom has always been that Ted Cruz had so alienated all his colleagues that he was a non-starter to be a national candidate, but this year, that could be an advantage.”

Watch the video.

Steele wholeheartedly agreed and elaborated on the idea that this “was something from the very beginning as far as Cruz was concerned” with the premise that “the less the folks in D.C. liked him the better.”

He also predicted that the absence of support from his colleagues and D.C.-establishment types will “benefit him going forward because he truly is outside both the establishment and what Washington has been talking about the last couple of years.”

So, the lesson here, folks, is rather simple: Liberals like Mitchell are growing more and more leery of conservatives and their opportunities to employ their liberal thought process are drying up.

The transcript of the segment from MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on November 25 can be found below.

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
November 25, 2015
12:52 p.m. Eastern

ANDREA MITCHELL: Ted Cruz is moving on up in the Iowa Quinnipiac poll, pulling ahead of Ben Carson, who’s dropped to third. Marco Rubio competing with Cruz to be the alternative to Donald Trump and Carson, if and when the race gets real, so let's talk about that with MSNBC political analyst, Michael Steele, former Republican National chairman. What do you make of Ted Cruz moving up in Iowa? It seems as though he's got more ground troops on the ground. 

MICHAEL STEELE: He does. 

MITCHELL: A better organization, I should say, than Marco Rubio. 

STEELE: Yeah, he does and I’d say probably better than most of the other candidates. The one thing about Ted Cruz that I find very interesting and smart is while everybody has been focused on the bright shining object that is Donald Trump, he has been methodically laying the ground for just such an occasion, to sort of move into a position to challenge for the lead and it's not — it's not about the national polls as you well know, Andrea, national polls mean absolutely butt kiss right now. They mean nothing. It's exactly what is going on in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada that matter most and that's what he's focusing his energy on and he’s gaining the benefits from it. 

MITCHELL: So, Rubio now trying to stake his claim to be the alternative if Ben Carson and Donald Trump fade away, but Cruz and Rubio really are the logical competitors for that role. 

STEELE: They are. They have similar appeals to the base. You know, I think Ted has a stronger conservative advantage across the spectrum. He has been the one who has been in the well, fighting the hardest and the loudest so much so that his colleagues in the Senate don't like him and publicly have stated such. Rubio has baggage that he carries on immigration, and certainly even in terms of the war footing that he's claiming, there's going to be some challenge, not just from someone like Cruz, but also as you saw in the last debate with Rand Paul, which is, again, reflective of what is going on inside the party. So, Cruz has put himself, I think, in the best position to take on Donald Trump leading into the next debate in December. 

MITCHELL: The conventional wisdom has always been that Ted Cruz had so alienated all his colleagues that he was a non-starter to be a national candidate, but this year, that could be an advantage. 

STEELE: Oh, absolutely. In fact, that was something from the very beginning as far as Cruz was concerned that didn't matter to him. He didn’t — in fact, the less — the folks in D.C. liked him the better and that's going to benefit him going forward because he truly is outside both the establishment and what Washington has been talking about the last couple of years.

[867V309]

Senate’s dislike for Cruz makes him my leading candidate.

The big difference between Cruz and Trump:
The establishment loathes Cruz.
The establishment fears Trump.

[erod]

[Covenantor]

here’s the germ of an idea for guerilla psy-ops. Stick on labels printed with gallows graphic and titled, “Reserved for traitor (Insert name) on lamposts, etc.

[Vision Thing]

When you get past the inflammatory headline and you reach the highlighted statements, both andrea and Michael Steele are saying that the Senate’s dislike for Cruz is an advantage for him.

[PhilDragoo]

Senate s dislike for Cruz makes him my leading candidate.

There it is.

[FourPeas]

Media and DC insiders still can’t comprehend that not playing ball with Democrats and Establishment GOP is what Americans want. Thankfully, Senator Cruz does.

[FourPeas]

Senate’s dislike for Cruz makes him my leading candidate.

Absolutely.

[Dogbert41]

I make it a point to turn a channel whenever that witch is on.

[onyx]

There you go, PhilDragoo!

LOL.

Booze has made a huge difference.

Just “look” at her.

[erod]

LOL

[SeaHawkFan]

Cruz does not need the approval of the GOPe; he’s from Texas and we love him.

[Thank You Rush]

“”as you well know, Andrea, national polls mean absolutely butt kiss right now””

I’m sure that’s not what he said but it’s what someone THOUGHT he said - LOL....

[frnewsjunkie]

Boy, they are hell bent on their way or the highway.

Thank goodness Cruz is not like the others in the GOP. Thanks goodness he fought tooth and nail against that elite club.

[American Constitutionalist]

Andrea ? Being Alan Greenspan’s wife should have made him a non-starter for nomination for Chairman of the Federal Reserve you screech monster.

[American Constitutionalist]

She is just telling us publicly how much her butt hole stinks, opinions you know.

[DoodleDawg]

I would love to be a fly on the wall the first time Mitch McConnell meets up with Ted Cruz and has to say, “Good morning, Mr. President.”

[American Constitutionalist]

Bingo, its The People’s Choice Andrea Beyatch..

[American Constitutionalist]

At one time it was each state that would make the selection to send it’s senators to Congress instead of what we have now every 4 years.

[American Constitutionalist]

Benjazhi alone should have made Hillary a non-starter in this presidential election.

BENJHAZI ISIS QUEEN HILLARY CLINTON.

[Unmarked Package]

Ted Cruz made solemn promises to the conservative voters in Texas during his run for the U.S. Senate. He has honored his promises and done so very much more to fight our political battles.

Despite withering criticism and attacks from Senate leadership in both the Republican and Democrat Party, Cruz was faithful to our conservative principles and didn't retreat from a fight in the vicious snake pit of corruption, backstabbing and betrayal that is Washington, DC. Cruz has done this in the most difficult political circumstances imaginable, often in face-to-face encounters in his daily workplace with his most bitter adversaries.

Ted Cruz is a proven philosophical outsider to the Democrat/Republican Washington Cartel culture of self preservation and betrayal. A warrior in the lion's den is vastly more meaningful to me than one standing outside the cage cheering him on.