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.

[DJ MacWoW]

Click The Pic To Donate

[going hot]

One could dismiss most of the other 99 and this country would be well on its way to correct the mess we are in. They brought us here.

[Isara]

But in 2017 I see Cruz as the Senate President anyway, so they better get use to him.

But in 2017 I see Cruz as the Senate President anyway, so they better get use to him.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

"...national polls mean absolutely butt kiss right now."

Missed by both the transcriber and every level of editing. It's the Yiddish term "bupkis", not "butt kiss."

[The_Media_never_lie]

This did not matter because collectively Congress has about a 9% favorable rating.

[taterjay]

Angria’s dislike of Sarah is what started it all.

[Uncle Miltie]

Because the Senate is the arbiter of good taste in politics.

< / RINO >

[SoFloFreeper]

She is correct. We are now in a time when the grassroots is sick and tired of the liars.

A smart leadership would have realized their problem after Eric Cantor was defeated.

[Caipirabob]

"Andrea Mitchell reporting, have a nice evening..."

[Lurkinanloomin]

Exactly right.
There are at most 5-6 U.S. Senators who side with the citizens and the rule of law against illegal aliens and their employers.

[Dr. Sivana]

Congress typically has 5-15% favorability ratings. Being on the outs with a group so unpopular may well be a plus.

[CodeToad]

She didn’t say that about Obama, which the Senate did not like.

[NormsRevenge]

Filthy old rat vermin and Andrea Mitchell’s future.. next on PMSlsdNBC

[Lurkinanloomin]

We Cantorized that crapweasel because we knew he was about to betray us and pass Rubio’s amnesty bill in the House.
The RNC/GOP has only doubled down trying to defeat anyone opposed to The Cheap Labor Express.

Many more districts need to Cantorize their crapweasels.

[PoloSec]

Cruz control; he is doing more in the Senate than all others combined, he is exposing their deceit at every turn, he is busting the Rino engine and pouring sugar in their fuel tank, yeah the rino’s see him as a vandal bent on destruction and they cannot stop him because he is not wrong, he is exercising righteous anger upon them.

With great respect, appreciation and admiration for Donald Trump... CRUZ 2016!

[gov_bean_ counter]

Andrea always sounds like she could use a couple glasses of Metamucil.

[DaveyB]

Cruz was not made by the media! The media is losing control of the narrative. They are losing their power and influence to a variety of information sources beyond their control. A Cruz presidency means the acceleration of the media’s irrelevancy; for people who live on ego, irrelevancy is like they cease to exist.

[stars & stripes forever]

The Senate’s disdain for CRUZ is an asset. CRUZ is the candidate of hope for the restitution of the U.S. Constitution.

[SmokingJoe]

Dittos

[Henry Hnyellar]

Why? Because 99 people aren’t going to vote for him? 40-some would never have voted for him anyway, since they are Democrat. Andrea is an idiot.