How Washington’s “Crucifixion” Of Ted Cruz Made Him A Tea Party Saint In Iowa

buzzfeed.com ^ | 10/27/2013 | McKay Coppins

[RoosterRedux]

As an audience of 600 Republicans awaited the arrival of Sen. Ted Cruz Friday night at the Iowa Events Center, conservative Christian activist Steve Scheffler came to the podium to give thanks to God for the Tea Party savior — and plead for more principled conservative leaders like him willing to “be crucified for their belief system.”

The ballroom full of amens that followed went a long way toward explaining why Cruz — fresh off a failed crusade to dismantle Obamacare that resulted in a 16-day government shutdown and a political disaster for his party — has been greeted with such adoration by Tea Party crowds in recent days.

In Cruz, conservatives have found something better than a champion for their cause or a defender of their values. They’ve found a martyr.

Indeed, since the government shutdown, establishment Republicans have done little to conceal their frustration with Cruz and the “kamikaze caucus,” who have fielded pointed criticism from the likes of Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Orrin Hatch. But in the eyes of the Tea Party, the onslaught has only made Cruz seem more heroic.

“Every time one of these guys attacks him, it’s good for him,” said one Iowa Republican operative. “He’s like a superhero. The more bullets that get shot at him, the bigger and stronger he gets.”

[RoosterRedux]

Attacks on conservative politicians are becoming more and more vicious, and they’re a good measure of how effective the left perceives the person to be.

Remember the old adage about the amount of flak one is catching in relationship to being over the target.

[cpdiii]

Cruz showed America how bad Obamacare really is. And now it's happening just like he said:

Cruz showed America how bad Obamacare really is. And now it's happening just like he said:

Cruz showed America how bad Obamacare really is. And now it's happening just like he said:

> Cruz showed America how bad Obamacare really is. And now it's happening just like he said

Cruz showed America how bad Obamacare really is. And now it's happening just like he said:d:

That needed saying again and again and again. I noticed the main stream media are no longer jumping on Ted Cruz.