Posted on 07/24/2015 7:52:53 PM PDT by VinL
Senior lawmakers and staff from the House and Senate armed services committees are hammering away on the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill that keeps the military up and running. But there are fewer chairs at the negotiating table this time. And committee member and presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) isn’t in one of them.
GOP leadership was worried that the notorious grandstander would tank the crucial spending bill, two sources familiar with the process told HuffPost. In an effort to keep him out of the room, they cut the membership of the conference committee -- the panel responsible for hammering out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill -- to a smaller number than it’s been in years.
“The number of Senate conferees was cut from previous years. Typically, all members of the [Senate Armed Services Committee] are named as the Senate conferees, but that is not the case this year,” said one congressional source familiar with the process.
Both sources said they were told the conference panel was slashed in an effort to keep Cruz out of the room.
But the motive for boxing Cruz out of the end stages of the NDAA process isn’t entirely clear. After all, bombastic freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) landed an appointment. Cruz voted against the bill when it passed the Senate last month, but so did several other committee members who were eventually appointed to the conference panel.
“You’d have to ask Senator McConnell. That was his decision,” Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, adding that the conference process was ongoing.
There’s certainly no love lost between Cruz and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
I’m not sure he can run from Ted Cruz either.
McConnell has thrown his own jabs at the presidential hopeful, joking earlier this year about Cruz’s threats to throw himself in front of a train to stop Obamacare.
“That idea has some merit to it,” McConnell said at a dinner in January.
************
Keep tugging at Superman’s cape, Mitch.
I will support Ted Cruz financially to the best of my ability.
I thought a Ronald Reagan came along only once in a lifetime.
I was wrong.
I will crawl through flaming broken glass to vote for Ted Cruz every time he’s on a ballot.
The Empire Strikes Back...
There will be Hell to pay!
See tagline.
Edit Post #1— Should read- “you CAN’T run from Ted Cruz.”
Thanks, CC— Was really ticked reading the article, typed too fast.
“You’d have to ask Senator McConnell. That was his decision,” Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain (R-Ariz.)
At the request of Sen. McAmnesty,(Democrat in R jersey-AZ) no doubt.
Hey Watkins. You can kiss my Red, White and Blue ***!!! And that goes for your DNC puppet masters too!
IT is Republican civil war time. I guess there is no other way forward thanks to the “moderates” that have taken the top positions. Let this be a lesson to all: Moderate is not moderate. It means you are for sale to the highest bidder.
Sic semper tyranis and et tu Brute. Go Ted!
Dang, that's what I was going to say. GMTA.
It’s getting nasty, and look at McCain right in there sucking up to McConnell. Yep, that’s courage in action.
I am curious if this change was made before or after his speech certifying McConnell as a liar to Senators and to the public.
Donating our hard earned money to such a worthy candidate is a pleasure.
Thank you for your service and your sacrifice, 2ndDivisionVet. I owe you more than I can repay.
God Bless
Wonder I’d McConnell is paying the Huffington post or vice versa.
Pray that these thugs are exposed during the debate. There will be a natiinak stage. If all the anti Washington cartel sticks together they might start the coup
I stand with Ted. If there is an election in 2016, I will either write in his name or check the box next to his name.
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