Posted on 10/18/2013 7:20:58 AM PDT by cotton1706
An old adage (misattributed to Harry Truman by Maureen Dowd) advises newcomers to Washington that if they want to make a friend, they should buy a dog. Ted Cruz echoes that advice in a new interview with ABC News, in which he says that his ambitions in Washington didn’t involve becoming a beloved member of the clubbiest club in the world:
There’s an old saying that, ‘Politics, it ain’t beanbag.’ And, you know, I’m not serving in office because I desperately needed 99 new friends in the U.S. Senate,” Cruz told ABC News’ Jon Karl in his first on-camera interview after the shutdown came to an end Wednesday night. …
And he made it clear that he thinks his Republican colleagues in the Senate are responsible for sabotaging his effort to tie funding for the government to an effort to defund or delay the health care law.
“I will say that the reason this deal, the lousy deal was reached last night, is because, unfortunately, Senate Republicans made the choice not to support House Republicans,” Cruz told ABC News. “I wish Senate Republicans had united, I tried to do everything I could to urge Senate Republicans to come together and stand with House Republicans.” Cruz laid the blame on Senate Republicans attacking House Republicans during the shutdown:
“I think it was unfortunate that you saw multiple members of the Senate Republicans going on television attacking House conservatives, attacking the effort to defund Obamacare, saying, ‘It cannot win, It’s a fools error and we will lose, this must fail,’” Cruz said.
“That is a recipe for losing the fight, and it’s a shame.” Well, the attacks went both ways, and that started before the shutdown. When Cruz and Mike Lee pushed hard for the defunding strategy and the shutdown tactics, their allies attacked Republicans who opposed those strategic choices as “voting for ObamaCare,” a charge that FreedomWorks continued this week. At the same time, Peter King and John McCain rushed to television to call conservatives crazy, stupid, or both. Both sides seemed intent on ignoring the fact that opposition to ObamaCare is one of the few issues that unites the GOP, and has for four years, and that opposition to strategy is not the same thing as opposition to end goals.
The only way to dismantle ObamaCare is to win elections. Democrats won’t just fold on ObamaCare because they don’t have to do so as long as they control the Senate and the White House; this is a lifetime achievement for them. That means that Republicans and conservatives have to stop attacking each other’s integrity over choices in tactics, and focus on winning elections that replace Democratic incumbents in the Senate with solid Republican candidates, and building the argument to eliminate ObamaCare altogether after the 2016 elections. And that means that conservatives and moderates within the party need to aim their rhetorical guns outward rather than inward, and activists need to focus on Democratic Senate seats rather than embark on purity campaigns within the GOP caucus.
What we have now is a recipe for losing the long-term fight, and it’s going to be a lot worse than a “shame” if that happens.
Sing it brother.......you are doing what is right
The GOP won't win elections unless they show they have the grit to fight.
Too many times, they have won elections, and then NOT fought.
/johnny
I certainly believe BOTH my Georgia Senators did everything possible to thwart him, undermine his goals and to betray their constituency in doing so.
We here in Georgia are going to fix that problem just as fast as humanly possible.
Oh There are plenty of Texans who resemble Washington elites and a lot of liberals as well
And wait ‘til amnesty puts a stamp on the invaders
He’s working for the people who voted him in within the rules and regs of the constitution he is sworn to uphold
Anyone can do that, not that it’s easy
“the reason this deal, the lousy deal was reached last night, is because, unfortunately, Senate Republicans made the choice not to support House Republicans,”
Earth to Cruz: 87 republicans in the house voted for the “lousy deal” and it was passed by the house. You had a chance to hold up the bill in the senate but chose to back down and waive the white flag. I suggest that you change the subject and pray that people forget about this sorry episode.
He’s the only star they have now.
Compared to him, we see the others as worn out beggars, scrapping for crumbs from the Criminal party ‘s leftover table.
Old and pathetic....a new metaphor for McCain
As I see it, every new Senator has a choice to make. He can serve as he promised to do (whatever that means), or he can “go along to get along” and fall into the time-honored tradition of selling his soul (and more importantly, vote) to the Party and voting how the Whip tells him he’s supposed to.
Ted Cruz is one who seems steadfast in choosing the former. With luck, others will coalesce around him, as is already happening. This is truly what BOTH traditional parties fear, because this is how true change comes to happen.
If I were in his or other new Senators place, I would be much happier losing re-election because I did what was right and stayed true to my principles and promises than to gain continued employment by selling-out. After all, anyone in this most-exclusive club surely can earn $174K or more on the private market. Being there means you do what’s right.
I love this dude! Make ready!
Go play over at DU. Troll.
So far, so good Ted.
Now if only you were born in a mud hut in Kenya.
Don’t forget to add some whine with your cheese for dinner tonight.
short clips of the interview on you tube
Ted Cruz Won’t Rule Out Another Shutdown, But McConnell Does ABC News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4OmP42A9tQ
Ted Cruz Says He Doesn’t Need Friends in Senate ABC News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPMbntHC0s
Bill Whittle: “If the left gets its way, the 10,000 remaining people on the planet will be living in thatch huts, huddled around burning cow dung, picking parasites off other, eating their sustainable algae cakes, and raising money to save the Guatemalan water snake.”
All Cruz could have done is delay it for 30 hours.
Take your Cruz bashing elsewhere.
/johnny
” You had a chance to hold up the bill”
Liar! Cruz could only delay not hold it up. What good would that have done?
I like this guy more and more.
Right. Just look at all the good done when the GOP had both houses of congress and the White House a few years back. /s
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