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U.S. Senate (GOP Club)

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  • Rand Paul Bashes Neocons and Compares GOP Opposition to Jimmy Carter

    04/07/2015 10:14:06 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 82 replies
    National Journal ^ | April 8, 2015 | Emma Roller
    Watching the ads that run during Hannity, it's not a great mystery to figure out who the show's target audience is: retirement savings plans, arthritis cream, and of course, Cialis. But speaking to Sean Hannity on Tuesday night—in an interview taped just after he announced his presidential run—Sen. Rand Paul made his pitch to expand the Republican party beyond the largely older, white party base. Hannity successfully pushed Paul to nail down his positions on topics from Iran ("we should not trust them with a nuclear weapon ever") to vaccines ("the benefits are a million to one, you should vaccinate...
  • 4 People Who Say Ted Cruz Will Never Be President

    04/04/2015 8:51:24 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 97 replies
    Care2 ^ | April 4, 2015 | Robin Marty
    Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential campaign last month, making him the only current official Republican candidate — for now. All of that is expected to change next week as Marco Rubio and Rand Paul make their own announcements, and likely push Cruz into the presidential background. But it’s not just me who believes that Ted Cruz has no shot of being the party nominee, much less the eventual President in 2016. Here are four pretty persuasive groups who also say that President Cruz is never going to happen. 1. His fellow Texas politicians It’s pretty hard to...
  • Patrick Murphy rips Marco Rubio, cheers Hillary Clinton, says Senate ‘is full of Allen Wests’

    04/02/2015 5:58:38 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 22 replies
    The Palm Beach Post ^ | April 2, 2015 | George Bennett
    Appearing before a room full of Democratic partisans in his first speech as a 2016 Senate candidate, Rep. Patrick Murphy compared Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to conservative firebrand Allen West, took jabs at the tea party and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and cheered the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Murphy, who announced his Senate candidacy last week, made a brief appearance at Thursday night’s Palm Beach County Democratic Party meeting in West Palm Beach. Murphy was elected in 2012 by presenting himself as a moderate alternative to outspoken conservative West, unseating the Republican in a district where the GOP...
  • Could Chris Christie appoint himself to the US Senate? Yes, he can

    04/02/2015 5:10:42 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 6 replies
    KPCC-FM ^ | April 2, 2015 | Domenico Montanaro, NPR
    Thought exercise: What if the indictment of Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez ... could once again potentially place an appointment of a U.S. senator in the hands of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie? To trigger this scenario, Menendez, who was indicted Wednesday on corruption charges, would first have to step down or be convicted. Menendez has given no indication he's going anywhere. Then again, stranger things have happened. Consider why Christie might want to think about appointing himself IF a Senate seat were to be vacated: 1.He's term-limited as governor. He can't run again after serving two consecutive terms; and 2.His...
  • Ted Cruz Could Make It Difficult for Marco Rubio in 2016

    03/30/2015 9:52:40 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 51 replies
    Breitbart's Big Government ^ | Javier Manjarres
    This past weekend, word got out that Senator Marco Rubio had reserved the Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida, for an event, possibly to announce his 2016 presidential intentions. Those close to Rubio quickly tried to dispel the original Tampa Bay Times story as being false. Asked about reports he had booked the Freedom Tower in Miami on that date for an undisclosed event, Rubio said he had not reserved a specific site yet. Senator Rubio himself has been reaching out to long-time supporters and donors asking them if they could attend his April 13th event. Other staffers have been charged...
  • Sam Youngman: A critical look at Rand Paul and 'winnability'

    03/30/2015 6:55:46 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 18 replies
    The Lexington Herald-Leader ^ | March 30, 2015 | Sam Youngman
    Rand Paul likes to say that the Republican Party should follow the advice of painter Robert Henri, who said people should "paint like a man coming over a hill singing." But Paul, one week away from an announcement that he is running for president, often seems like a man running down a hill so fast that his feet can't keep up with his momentum. As he prepares to take a formal step onto the biggest stage in politics, Kentucky's junior U.S. Senator has previewed his campaign message as one of "winnability." "Ted Cruz is a conservative — but it also...
  • Can Ted Cruz Play Well With Others?

    03/30/2015 3:12:20 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 42 replies
    Slate ^ | March 30, 2015 | John Dickerson
    Ted Cruz defended his lack of executive experience this weekend saying that he is not a “community organizer.” The Texas senator explained that unlike Barack Obama, who also ran for president after one term in the Senate, he had accomplished more before becoming a legislator. Cruz pointed to his period as solicitor general of Texas—an answer that was itself a display of the debating talents his supporters say qualify him to be president. Cruz wasn’t answering the question as much as redefining the criteria. A lack of executive experience cannot be overcome by simply not having the attributes of the...
  • Obama: Politicians should carry themselves more like Kennedy (Teddy, not RFK or JFK!)

    03/30/2015 1:46:56 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 36 replies
    MSN / The Associated Press ^ | March 30, 2015 | Nedra Pickler and David Espo
    BOSTON — President Barack Obama summoned today's quarrelsome political leaders to emulate the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in the pursuit of compromise on Monday, and said a new institute that bears the longtime Massachusetts senator's name can be as much an antidote to political cynicism as the man once was. "What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we were to follow his example a little bit harder?" the president asked a crowd of family, former aides and political dignitaries of both parties under a tent in raw weather just outside the doors of the Edward...
  • Cruz Could Ride ‘Unlikeability’ All the Way to the White House

    03/30/2015 12:05:07 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 29 replies
    Yahoo! News / The Fiscal Times ^ | March 30, 2015 | Eric Pianin
    In an era of rampant anti-Washington sentiment among voters, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wears his reputation as a conservative iconoclast and one of the least popular members of the Senate as a badge of honor. Days after becoming the first politician to announce his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election, Cruz dismissed suggestions he’s too unlikeable and disdainful of the government process in Washington to win the White House. ---snip--- Cruz also articulated his credentials before coming to Washington, noting how they differed with Obama’s early background as a community organizer. “I spent five and a half years as the...
  • Perry tells tea party group he was right to back Dewhurst over Cruz in 2012 primary

    03/29/2015 7:36:50 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 64 replies
    The Washington Times ^ | March 29, 2015 | Seth McLaughlin
    Says loyalty bound him to his lieutenant governor, says more of this quality is needed in US politics.Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a tea party group Sunday that he supported his lieutenant governor against Ted Cruz in the 2012 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate out of loyalty — a characteristic, he said, that is sorely missing in American politics. During a conference call hosted by Tea Party Patriots, Mr. Perry said he endorsed then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst because of the strong relationship they had developed over the years. “If nothing else, I am a principled, disciplined and loyal...
  • Cruz is no Barry Goldwater, McCain and Flake say

    03/28/2015 10:16:22 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 55 replies
    The Arizona Republic | March 28, 2015 | Dan Nowicki
    Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.azcentral.com/story/azdc/2015/03/29/ted-cruz-no-barry-goldwater-john-mccain-jeff-flake-say/70579530/
  • BAYHAM: The Cruz Candidacy

    03/28/2015 2:23:41 AM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 6 replies
    The Louisiana Hayride ^ | March 25, 2015 | Mike Bayham
    When John McCain launched his candidacy for president in 1999, the Arizonan made his announcement in front of the decommissioned aircraft carrier the USS Yorktown to underscore his military service. When Texas US Senator Ted Cruz jumped into the race for president on Monday, he did so on the “deck” of an “evangelical battleship” at the Rev. Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University. Considering the major influence evangelical voters have in the GOP primaries, especially in the early states of Iowa and South Carolina, Cruz could not have been shrewder in selecting a venue for his declaration of candidacy. Rick Santorum would...
  • The difference between Rand Paul and Ted Cruz

    03/27/2015 5:12:09 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 32 replies
    WorldNetDaily ^ | March 27, 2015 | Doug Wead, former Ron Paul & Bush advisor
    Exclusive: Doug Wead says 1 candidate represents the past, the other the future. So what’s the difference between Republican presidential candidates Rand Paul and Ted Cruz? Ted Cruz is running against Barack Obama. Rand Paul is running against Hillary Clinton. One represents the past. The other represents the future. Both men are U.S. senators running for president in 2016. Rand Paul is from Kentucky, Ted Cruz from Texas. (Rand Paul is expected to announce his candidacy April 9.) Both men are conservatives whose careers were launched during rise of the tea party. Both are born-again Christians. And both signed the...
  • A Texas take on Ted Cruz's presidential bid

    03/27/2015 9:49:09 AM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 25 replies
    The Hill ^ | March 27, 2015 | Mark P. Jones
    When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) launched his U.S. Senate bid, he was the preferred choice of a mere 3 percent of Texas Republican primary voters in a field of a half-dozen credible candidates. Chief among his rivals was a powerful three-term lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, who possessed a net worth of $200 million, enjoyed the near-unanimous support of the Texas GOP establishment and began the 2012 election cycle with a commanding lead in the polls. A year-and-a-half later, Cruz soundly defeated Dewhurst in a primary runoff with 57 percent of the vote and was on his way to the U.S....
  • Ted Cruz and the Media

    03/27/2015 9:22:13 AM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 28 replies
    The New York Times' The Upshot ^ | March 27, 2015 | David Leonhardt
    Ted Cruz received almost 4.5 million votes in the 2012 Texas Senate election, which he won in a landslide. Millions more Americans, outside Texas, agree with his aggressive brand of conservatism. He has been one of the most influential figures in Congress lately, and this week he became the first major candidate to announce an official 2016 presidential campaign. He also has virtually no chance of winning the Republican nomination, let alone of becoming president. So what are we in the media supposed to do about Mr. Cruz’s candidacy? He is, on the one hand, a major figure in American...
  • Jeffrey Toobin: Ted Cruz ‘Could Not Be Farther’ from Sarah Palin

    03/25/2015 7:39:18 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 31 replies
    Mediaite ^ | March 25, 2015 | Matt Wilstein
    Last June, CNN’s senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin profiled Ted Cruz for The New Yorker under the headline “The Absolutist.” Now that Cruz has made his 2016 presidential campaign official, Toobin discussed the senator/candidate at length with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross on Wednesday’s show. Towards the end of their conversation, Toobin discussed what it was like to spend time with Cruz last year for a series of interviews. “Well, first of all, he’s just a very smart guy,” Toobin said, calling the former Supreme Court clerk a “law nerd” at heart. Toobin also called Cruz a “very polished speaker,” noting,...
  • Could a President Cruz Work With Congress?

    03/25/2015 5:34:26 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 18 replies
    The Weekly Standard ^ | March 25, 2015 | Jay Cost
    Charles Krauthammer articulated a major hurdle that Ted Cruz will face as he runs for the presidency: First term Senators, we already tried a first-term Senator. … Cruz talks about you have to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. You have to have done something but that's not his record in the Senate. He's a good rhetorician, but when Walker says I ran the state, I took on the unions, I took on liberals and I won I think it is going to be a strong argument. The same applies to Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Erick...
  • Does Ted Cruz Really Want to Be President?

    03/25/2015 12:32:38 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 15 replies
    Wall Street OTC ^ | March 25, 2015 | Alvin Barnes
    Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has announced on Monday he is going to run for president in 2016. One of the prominent leaders of the ultra-conservative wing of the Republicans, Cruz is the first politician to officially announce his candidacy. But the Tea Party controversial figure is still a question mark for the American public opinion. Ted Cruz claimed on Tuesday that his fund-raising campaign had a promising start, as the first 36 hours passed since he became a runner already brought $1 million in support of his bid. But most analysts regard the Texas senator as a marginal contender,...
  • Cruz told Megyn Kelly that his 2012 race proves he can win 2016. It’s impossible to prove him wrong.

    03/25/2015 11:31:07 AM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 2 replies
    The Washington Post's The Fix Blog ^ | March 25, 2015 | Chris Cillizza
    (VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) had a simple response to Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly when she asked him whether he could win the presidency: Look at 2012. That was the year in which Cruz, then Texas's solicitor general, was elected to the Senate. “We brought together conservatives and libertarians and evangelicals and women and young people and Hispanics and Reagan Democrats,” Cruz said of that race. To which I say: Who knows? The reason for the uncertainty is that there was no exit poll in 2012 in Texas. It was one of 19 states where the broadcast networks and the...
  • Rand Paul on Ted Cruz: We need a conservative nominee with “winnability” (Not satire)

    03/24/2015 1:03:54 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 53 replies
    Hot Air ^ | March 24, 2015 | Allahpundit
    I did … not think we’d be seeing Rand, of all people, making electability arguments at the expense of other candidates, but if there’s any guy in the field whom Democrats would demagogue more gleefully than they would him, I suppose it’s Cruz. The money line here comes when he talks about “not just throwing out red meat, but throwing out something intellectually enticing to people who haven’t been listening to our message before.” That’ll be his core attack on Cruz throughout the primaries, partly of necessity since there’s not much that divides them on policy (by Paul’s own admission)....