Free Republic

Ted Cruz and House conservatives are once again trying to derail John Boehner's plans. Who could've guessed? When the House GOP leadership floated its government funding strategy early this week — the (please kill me immediately for typing this) “cromnibus” plus a separate protest vote denouncing President Obama’s immigration executive action — the first thought I had was “Oh my God, Ted Cruz.” Then I thought “Oh my God, Steve King.” As in: Ted Cruz and Steve King will not at all be happy with this, and they’ll probably try to nuke it. Just look at the way the maneuver...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday called for his colleagues to reject an annual defense bill because of the “extreme land grab” tacked onto the measure. The bipartisan proposed bill, released late Tuesday, includes a variety of public land and energy provisions, including designating new national parks and wilderness areas, and speeding the permitting process for oil and gas drilling, and energy and mineral measures. Cruz called the provisions and the decision to attach them to the National Defense Authorization Act “an extreme land grab to the NDAA [that] is a disservice to members of the Armed Forces.” “With the...

Following up on an earlier item, House Republicans are still weighing their options when it comes to a possible government shutdown next week, but as the process unfolds, there will be quite a few meetings behind closed doors. Take this one, for example, scheduled for this morning. A cadre of the House’s most conservative members will meet Wednesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club for Rep. Steve King’s regular breakfast to discuss lame duck legislation. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who often serves as a de facto spokesperson for congressional hardliners, is expected to attend. It’s worth pausing to appreciate...

AP/Tony Gutierrez Senator Ted Cruz. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attacked what he described as " the Obama-Clinton foreign policy" in a wide-ranging speech on Tuesday. "It's almost as if the whole world is on fire right now," Cruz said at a Washington event hosted by Concerned Veterans for America. "Leading from behind doesn't work." As an alternative, Cruz presented his own three-part plan for "r easserting American leadership in the world." The first step, Cruz said, was making sure the US government again becomes a voice for freedom. "We should be a clarion voice for freedom. Never underestimate the power...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was in full Ted Cruz form Tuesday afternoon as he spoke to a rapt audience at the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington. The crowd, Concerned Veterans for America, was mostly in his corner. The setting was a dimly lit basement banquet room with enormous marble green columns, beautiful ornate chandeliers and a Christmas tree in the corner.Simple. Festive. Cheery. And eventually, in came Cruz.The Weekly Standard editor-in-chief Bill Kristol moderated a panel and introduced the senator, who was running late. Kristol is a decent emcee in that he makes jokes. He also acknowledges awkwardness.“Am I just going to get a...

Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the White House on Tuesday for a "failure of leadership" as President Barack Obama prepares to nominate his administration's fourth defense secretary. The Texas Republican, who is considering a 2016 run in hopes of heading his own White House administration, called the unusually high turnover at the helm of the Defense Department emblematic of a White House that puts politics above U.S. national security. "It seems what the administration is looking for is a defense secretary who will follow the orders of a political White House rather than focus on defending the national security interests of...

America needs to retake its role as world leader, Ted Cruz says, and he is available to lead the charge. The senator from Texas made his case Tuesday at a foreign policy keynote in Washington, where he admonished the Obama administration for what he said was its weakness abroad and explained what a "sound policy"—his—would look like. Hosted by Concerned Veterans for America and The Weekly Standard, the event, "What Should Modern American Foreign Policy Look Like?," seemed tailor-made as a platform for Cruz's political ambitions.Though his language fell under the general guise of "what should be done," Cruz's speech...

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, predicted Tuesday that neither Gov. Rick Perry nor Sen. Ted Cruz can win the presidency in 2016, calling them both too divisive to garner broad support. “When you get to the general election, people don’t generally want either an angry person or a very harsh, shrill, partisan person,” Castro said about Perry’s prospects. “They want somebody … whose aim at least is to bring people together.” Castro — in a rare joint appearance with twin brother Julián Castro, the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, at a Politico event titled “Lessons from Leaders” — said Cruz...

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was the most exciting entrée that president Mort Klein dished up at his Nov. 23 Zionist Organization of America dinner at Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt. The ballroom rocked with chants of “Run Ted Run! Run Ted Run!” Will these hordes of supporters pass the pushke to help fill Cruz’s coffers? Cheerleading burnishes the ego, but barrels of shekels churn out the votes. That’s why Cruz was cruising Jewish right wing at the ZOA affair. The tea party darling was one of 1,000 guests, including such major machers as real estate mogul/media honcho Mortimer Zuckerman, deep-pocketed Michael...

More than 400 young people from across the country will descend on Capitol Hill Tuesday to hear how Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, actress Ashley Judd and other lawmakers will address issues relating to the so-called millennial generation. “We wanted to send a strong message that bipartisanship for millennials is not reserved for the centrists or for the moderates … [It] also includes those on the far left and the far right,” Steven Olikara, president of the Millenial Action Project, said in a phone interview. “And it also reflects the strength of this movement to bring unlikely partners together in service...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, December 2, Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) and The Weekly Standard will host a national security policy forum, "What Should Modern American Foreign Policy Look Like?" at the historic Willard Hotel in downtown Washington. With turmoil and ISIS on the rise in the Middle East, the specter of a new Cold War between Russia and the West, and an increasingly adversarial relationship with China, this symposium will explore and debate the proper orientation of U.S. national security and foreign policy priorities in the 21st Century. The event, part of CVA's Strength and...

NEW YORK — Say what you will about Ted Cruz. The senator does his homework.More than a few heads nodded approval at last Sunday night’s Zionist Organization of America dinner when Cruz noted that the Hebrew month of Kislev had just begun.“The month of Hanukkah, a month of miracles,” Cruz went on, recalling the Maccabees’ victory over an oppressive Greek king back in the day. “The few defeated the many. The righteous defeated the unrighteous.”A few jaws went slightly agape. This Cuban-American tea partier, son of an evangelical minister — he knows from Kislev and the Festival of Lights?Among the...

Americas population is booming with Hispanics and a half Cuban, Ted Cruz may just be this countries answer to fixing his Texan and Arizona borders. Who best to speak on immigration issues, afterall Cubans have been trying to get to America for decades and their value and contribution to the USA can not be overstated....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Columnist Pat Buchanan predicted that either Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) would be in the "finals" for the GOP nomination in 2016 on Friday's "McLaughlin Group.""If you want to get the nomination, you don't worry about independents in a general election, you excite the base, the Tea Party, the conservatives, the activists, the libertarians, and this is exactly what Cruz is doing. And I think it's a correct strategy as a nomination strategy, it's risky in a general election" he stated....

It's never too early to start playing the "will he or won't he?" game with presidential contenders. For anyone who has ever met Ted Cruz, or listened to the senator speak, I think it's fairly obvious that this guy has some big ambitions. But behind any great man is an even greater staff, which which why some recent hires made by Cruz's campaign suggests he's beefing up with the best and brightest ahead of a presidential run in 2016. Some recent moves in Senator's Cruz's staff include: •Joel Mowbray, a consultant and Middle East and terrorism expert for the think...

With the 2014 election now in the history books, the reality is that the 2016 campaign is upon us. And you can expect Texas to get more time in the spotlight now that the 2016 GOP presidential primary is a main attraction. Four candidates with direct or indirect connections to the Lone Star State are on most early lists of top potential candidates: Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and two scions of families with strong Texas ties — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of former Texas Congressman (and frequent presidential aspirant) Ron Paul, and...

Next nominee must spurn policy of ‘leading from behind’ and mount forceful defense of U.S. national security interests WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today issued the following statement regarding the resignation of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel: “Today's resignation reflects the ongoing damage caused by President Obama's misguided foreign policy of leading from behind. We need a Secretary of Defense who is squarely focused on defending the national security interests of the United States, first and foremost, and especially preventing a bad deal over Iran's nuclear weapons program that could do irreparable harm to us and our allies....

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today issued the following statement in advance of Thanksgiving Day: “Today we give thanks for the miracle of freedom. “Our gift of liberty was first realized a century and a half before we ever signed the Declaration or Constitution—it was born when the Pilgrims risked their livelihood so that they might worship the Lord Almighty with all their hearts, souls, and minds. “Thus our nation sprung from a spirit of courage and gratitude: courage to trust that a small force could achieve mighty deeds through the grace of God, and gratitude for his deliverance. “When...

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the correct location of the meeting between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Adelson, as well as a different characterization of the results of that meeting. Jewish life in New York is dominated by ritual. Holidays. A pastrami reuben on a hero at Katz’s. The reading of holy books in cycles that take a year (the Torah) or seven and a half years (the Talmud). And just as reliably, there’s the ritual of presidential candidates sniffing around for dough right after the midterm elections. That last one got going in earnest yesterday and today,...

The New York Observer excerpted some choice lines from Ted Cruz’s meetings with various prominent Jewish leaders in New York City this week. He’s definitely doing prep work for 2016 and, thanks to gross mischaracterizations of him by both Republicans and Democrats, he is probably quite underestimated all around. He is also smart enough to turn this to his advantage in these early stages of the election cycle. Responding to a question inspired by one of the more popular narratives — he can’t win — that Democrats and moderate Republicans are eerily in sync on, Senator Cruz had this to...