Posted on 10/18/2013 7:31:33 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Sen. Ted Cruz isn’t very popular right now on Capitol Hill — and he says he doesn’t care.
“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,” the Texas Republican told ABC News in an interview set to air Sunday.
Cruz has taken a lot of criticism for his part in a failed attempt to defund Obamacare by tying it to a bill to keep the government funded. The gambit resulted in a 16-day partial shutdown of the government and ended with the GOP basically conceding defeat to the Democrats.
Many top Republicans said at the outset of the “defund” strategy that they didn’t think it would work — and told that to Cruz in no uncertain terms.
Cruz, for his part, has responded by placing the blame for the failure of the “defund” strategy on his colleagues, going so far as to accuse certain Republicans of “bombing our own troops.”
In short, Cruz doesn’t believe the “defund” strategy was wrong; Senate Republicans were just unwilling to fight.
“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. “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.”
The freshman senator hasn’t named which Republicans he blames specifically the “defund” failure.
“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,” he said.
2:00 minute video
God bless him!
He doesn't need to. We already know who the POS RINOs are, and they know who they are too.
I continually be so proud of my vote for this man....I firmly believe when Obamacare crashes and burns Ted Cruz will be the benefactor!!!
He’s OK in my book.
The only guy there that spoke for ME. The only guy there that had the balls to step up and LEAD - and keep his word. That goes a long way with me.
The rest of them - and especially those giving him grief - aren’t worth sh*t.
They need to be primaried and thrown out of office.
I don’t vote for the Republican who can best help the Democrat screw me over; I vote for the Republican who has the balls to stand up to the Democrat and tell him to go stick his head up his arse.
It’s a pretty basic thing.
Let me translate Cruz:
“FU Lindsey, John, and Mitch.....oh, you too Peter King....just FU.....”
And we are with Ted.....he may not have 99 new friends in DC, but he has millions everywhere else.
Bingo! Leave the GOP and form a new party Ted. You'l have an instant following!
I hope he stays obstinate and patriotic.
I wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone there either. That is why I have always said the likes of Sean Vannity are losers since many of the losers he interviews he introduces as his “good friend”. I have no friends that are not conservative. I hand out the word “friend” very cautiously.
...And made millions of friends in the process.
CRUZ 2016!
CRUZ/WEST!!!!!!!!! 2016!!!!!!!
This is our answer to bathhouse like Reagan was the answer to farter.
Probably if we can’t turn out of office the socialist Republicans who endlessly enable the Marxists in power, it is highly doubtful we can turn out the votes to do it in a Third Party.
It’s a slow enough slog now trying to gain ground, but at least we are inside the apparatus
this way and we have strength in numbers, among those who are already in office and elected by Republicans. There is still a lot of educating of the voters to be done before we split off from the machine in place and go off and rebuild another one. Imho.
We are BEYOND fixing Washington by any means that utilizes the existing system. We may even be beyond stopping this MarxoFascist juggernaut by civil means at this point if history’s lessons teach us anything.
But stopping and changing this Beast in Washington isn’t going to be done by national elections or voting for people in power.
it’s going to have to come from the OUTSIDE on in. It will have to be forced. There is no possible way to remove tyrannical entrenched despots and their system from within the very system they have corrupted for themselves.
I agree with your sentiment that we need a more conservative influence in the Senate; however, I am not sure that forming a new party would be an effective way to achieve that goal. Under our system, you must have a majority to achieve any legislative goal. For instance, Representative Ron Paul had a large personal following, but he had absolutely no influence on actual law.
It is really a matter of mathematics. The Senate is controlled by the party that has at least 51 Senators. It should be a given that current democrat voters are not suddenly going to support conservative candidates just because a new conservative party is formed. It would be almost impossible for the democrats to fall below 40 members and in reality a number below 45 would require a miracle. The only realistic avenue for conservatives is to gain control through the republican party. Since the Senate is controlled by the party that has at least 51 votes, effective control can be gained by achieving a majority of the majority. That means that conservatives can control by winning 26 to 28 seats, providing the republican party as a whole can win at least 51 seats. Fielding good solid electable conservatives in the primaries in those states where they have a chance to win in the general election and tolerating more moderate republicans in the liberal leaning states would be a better strategy for victory.
Ted Cruz Ping!
If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
Please beware, it is a high-volume ping list!
There are intermediate steps that can be taken, though. Primary out as many progressive Republicans as possible--McConnell and Graham should be targets. Create a national organization under one banner, Tea Party, or Freedom Party or whatever, and sign up the true conservatives in Congress as members. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Sarah Palin, House conservatives like Louie Gohmert. Enforce membership by actions, not words. Kick 'em out if they vote for an Obamacare, for example.
Give money to the primary opponents of GOPe candidates. As much as possible.
That is probably what needs to be done in 2014. Build up some additional allies in congress and build the national organization that is aligned with the Republican party but not part of it.
Then, in 2016 comes the big push. An all out effort must be made to ensure that a true conservative gets the nomination. That will not be easy, because the party stacks the deck against conservatives. Liberal states vote first, big donors from corporations give to the RNC, open primaries where dems vote for our candidates, and so on. All make it an uphill climb, far harder than when Reagan wrested control of the nomination for the GOPe's candidate, GHW Bush. It will take a concentration of effort and an upswelling of popular support that the GOPe is not prepared for. It will also require that conservatives don't split their votes among several candidates. A guy like the Huckster is good at being a stalking horse for the Rinos.
So, it might be a good idea for that national organization I am positing to hold a convention and select its favored candidate for the GOP nomination. Whoever wants the nomination should go there and make their case, and then the organization votes and endorses that candidate. And if the losers of that vote want America to survive, they will stand down and support the organization's decision. Conservatives will need to maintain discipline in this regard, and there may be need for moral and other persuasion of those who are unhappy with the choice. It will be important for those who are conservative voters to understand that we need to unite behind one person.
At that point, if the conservative wing of the Republican party is able to secure the nomination, then we will be able to use the existing 2nd party to further conservatism, and no third party will be necessary. If, however, the uphill battle proves too much, and the Republican party nominates another progressive, God forbid, a Christie, then at the point that becomes inevitable, the third party needs to form. It took Perot one or two months to surge into the lead in 1992, and he was a nut. An organization headed by Rush, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and 10s of millions of patriots will surpass the GOP in a short time. We don't need to have a candidate in every local and Congressional race, that infrastructure can come later. Whether we win the White House or not, destroying the GOP, getting it down to its natural level of 12 or 15 percent of the electorate will be the goal. It will then whither away and die, and the Rove types may well become Democrats. The new conservative party will start the multigenerational process of reversing marxism in America, and will start from a regional base in the south and midwest, expanding every cycle. That is the only way to get America back, not by following the Democrats to oblivion like the Rove types want.
/Rant..
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