Posted on 07/26/2015 9:09:00 PM PDT by VinL
Despite a call for decorum, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's high-stakes showdown with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bled into an unusually tense Sunday session featuring a parliamentary duel between the Senate's top Republican and the 2016 presidential hopeful from Texas.
Two days after Cruz seized national headlines by accusing McConnell of lying about a vote to revive an export subsidy bank that many conservatives oppose, the two faced off over an unrelated Cruz measure to block a nuclear agreement with Iran.
McConnell, facing an Aug. 1 deadline to pass a national highway and transit funding bill, blocked Cruz's amendment, as well as another by a Cruz ally, Utah Republican Mike Lee, to defund Planned Parenthood.
The standoff kept the tea party champion in the political spotlight at a critical juncture in the race for the GOP presidential nomination that has been dominated in recent weeks by Donald Trump, a conservative firebrand who has blunted much of Cruz's momentum.
The first televised debate in the race is scheduled for Aug. 6, and will be limited to the top 10 GOP rivals in the polls.
Casting himself as a truth-teller in the widening gulf between establishment Republicans and the party's grass-roots, Cruz lambasted McConnell Friday on the Senate floor for permitting a vote to include an Export-Import Bank provision in the pending highway bill.
On Saturday, Cruz's campaign swung into action. "Fireworks broke out on the Senate floor yesterday as Ted set out to shine a light on the backroom deals taking place in our nation's capital," campaign manager Jeff Roe wrote in an email to supporters. "The long knives came out against Ted because he dared to tell the truth and expose what was really happening."
By Sunday, there was little doubt who Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Senate president pro tempore, was addressing when he called for civility and complained of using the Senate for political grandstanding and fundraising.
"The Senate floor has become a place where senators have singled out colleagues by name to attack them in personal terms and to impugn their character," Hatch said.
Cruz soon took to the Senate floor himself to endorse Hatch's call for civility. But, far from backing down, he added that civility should be consistent with "speaking the truth." (snip- more at source)
He is the 3rd party constitutional conservative running in the Republic Primary, and his intent is to force the party back to its origins.
Hatch is a disgrace! I’m just hoping the Lord calls him home soon! He’s probably going to die in office. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later! I call it “praying with a purpose.”
This is the normal and continual action against Conservatives in Congress. Why would you expect different?
The liberal Republicans in Congress (both houses) need to be gone before anything changes.
Amen. I once heard him being interviewed complaining about conservatives wanting to make cuts saying “they don’t understand how the system works!” Just choke on a piece of poorly chewed fat you old slime bag!
I wish I could go back and find my posts predicting the possible formation of a new second party a year ago.
Maybe I should not play down my tag line, it’s supposed to be a joke of sorts.
I am just wondering WHY some of the other Republican Senators did not come out and defended Cruz on this. If he is willing to stick his neck out and tell the truth, it would seem like some would take the opportunity to stand with him. It's now or never, and it should be held against them when they want reelected.
What the hell are they afraid of, if some of them don't, then every damn one of them should be ashamed. Not one would second the motion? Not one? I admit I don't know how all that works, but all it would have taken was One Republican Senator to Second. Just damn.
So it would seem that even Mike Lee didn’t stand with him.
It suddenly occurred to me that Cruz’s actions have much the same favor as Jesus throwing out the money changers.
By design.
Isn’t it interesting that the Republican congressional leadership has done NOTHING for the base since the election? Oh, they have done one thing; they have badmouthed us, even more so than the Democrats and certainly worse than they have ever said about the Democrats. Orrin Hatch was so busy kissing Ted Kennedy’s backside that he forgot whatever he went to Washington for in the first place; McConnell and Boehner are mere place holders for the US Chamber of Commerce.
The only way to stop this is for Ted to get enough patriots to change party affiliation and force Mitch into a minority party position.
This is the normal and continual action against Conservatives in Congress. Why would you expect different?
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Yes, I believe you’re correct. But, when have you known one to fight back?
You’re right there! Cruz is a breath of fresh air but I just hope that he is not destroyed before he can be elected!
The Republican Party has a habit of eating its own when they are Conservatives.
Sen. Cruz has said the way to do it is for the voters to rise up- and demand the change. If Cruz is elected President, he controls the party apparatus and he has the power of the executive office.
These lemmings have no principles or core- they only want to stay in office. When Pres. Cruz has power over them, I suspect the majority will become hard core, limited gov’t conservatives.
You just made the case for term limits.
That would make a great issue for Cruz, just to fan it the uniparties face, it would get some of that free publicity Trump style. Ted needs to work on his publicity whore skills.
Cruz 2016
Note to self: Ted has been ramping it up and his polls are already moving.
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