Posted on 10/31/2013 9:19:01 AM PDT by cotton1706
Extending an olive branch to GOP senators, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is privately making it clear he won’t engage in the Senate Conservatives Fund’s hardball tactics to defeat his colleagues in their primary races.
At a closed-door lunch meeting of Senate Republicans Wednesday, the freshman conservative told his colleagues that he would not intervene in their 2014 primary fights or fundraise for the controversial outside group. Cruz added that the SCF’s decision to try to defeat sitting GOP senators in their primaries was its alone, according to several people familiar with the session.
According to one source familiar with the meeting in the Senate’s Mansfield Room, Cruz noted that Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky wouldn’t fundraise for the group and promised that his image would be removed from its materials. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Cruz that Paul took such an action six months ago, but he thanked the Texas conservative for doing so. Other GOP senators also thanked Cruz, sources say.
The comments illustrate the challenges facing Cruz as he builds his national profile as a conservative firebrand unafraid to take on his party — but who is also forced to work, lunch and gather with his fellow GOP senators during weeks when Congress is in session. Cruz, a prospective 2016 presidential candidate, became a pariah with his GOP Senate colleagues during the 16-day government shutdown when he aligned himself closely with the SCF and slammed his GOP colleagues as timid Washington insiders afraid to defund Obamacare.
One source said Cruz made clear to his colleagues at the Wednesday meeting that he would not associate himself with the group any longer. But a Cruz spokeswoman said the senator would still be involved with the group’s effort in “promoting conservative causes.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The senate should not be choosing its own members. The people should do that.
I think this is very smart.
I think that’s right.
I like the idea that incumbents are making sure that he won’t endorse their opponents is a victory.....they forget that this cuts both ways. He won’t hurt them, but he won’t help them either.
Did they pledge not to work for the defeat of conservative Senators? I bet not.
Keep in mind that Orrin Hatch voted in literal lockstep with Mike Lee. Mitch McConnell practically begged Paul to endorse him. I’m sure Lindsey Graham would love for Tim Scott to endrose him. And I’m sure John Cornyn had a very big sad face on when he heard this news.
And Cruz is providing leadership to men like Scott, who no doubt will be pressured to endorse their colleagues, as Rick Santorum was to rescue Arlen Specter. And we all remember how that turned out. Santorum helped Specter but Specter would not return the favor two years later and Santorum was thrown out.
He knows at least two of them are going down in 2014.
I have no problem with Cruz not endorsing in primaries.
However, this does not excuse Rand Paul or Marco Rubio for endorsing McConnell in the primary. They need to follow Cruz’s lead.
Cruz is taking the high road. Now, other so-called “conservative” Senators need to do the same
Bear in mind there is probably no flip side to this coin...
That is, not expecting any reciprocal arrangement from, for example, Rove’s Conservative Victory Project and so-called American Crossroads.
So we know what Ted Cruz will do, but what about his War-Brother Mike Lee? Lee may end up acting as a proxy, denying it all the while, of course.
“Bear in mind there is probably no flip side to this coin...”
Oh, of course. And this shines light on the sham that is the NRSC. They say they exist to help incumbent senators, but guaranteed they will do nothing to help Paul or Lee or Cruz or Scott get reelected. They would have loved it if DeMint wasn’t reelected and they probably cheered when Santorum was thrown out. They funded Specter and Crist and Castle and Murkowski but let O’Donnell and Angle and Buck and Lonegan twist in the wind.
I’ll say it again: THE SENATE SHOULD NOT BE CHOOSING ITS OWN MEMBERS.
Cruz is smart. If the RINOs backstab him again, they’ll just be bringing the wrath of conservatives down on themselves, and he won’t have to say a word.
Cruz said two months ago he’s not endorsing Cornyn. This is Cruz tacking to the center.
Read the article. Lee won’t be endorsing against incumbents either.
“Cruz is smart. If the RINOs backstab him again, they’ll just be bringing the wrath of conservatives down on themselves, and he won’t have to say a word.”
Exactly! He’s very shrewd, and he does it in such a way that it looks like he’s doing them a favor.
Oh wait...
Good point. As the dodos of Politico refer to the future president as a ‘freshman’, a ‘pariah’, the Senator should demand that McConnell and Co. pledge to not raise funds against other primary opponents other than their own.
The GOPe is the enemy inside our camp and they absolutely without a doubt must be driven out.
“Did they pledge not to work for the defeat of conservative Senators? I bet not.”
Exactly. He could have helped conservative challengers immeasurably; instead, he pussied out.
Is there even one man who won’t pussy out? Can’t be bought, can’t be intimidated?
Elected officials should stay out of endorsing in the primaries. Period!
“The GOPe is the enemy inside our camp and they absolutely without a doubt must be driven out.”
Cruz didn’t help much here.
“Cruz is smart.”
Don’t see it.
“If the RINOs backstab him again”
Of course they’ll backstab him again. That’s who they are.
“they’ll just be bringing the wrath of conservatives down on themselves, and he won’t have to say a word.”
This conservative holds that Cruz had to know that the RINOs would backstab him again, and that this move is therefore an unconditional surrender.
I won’t wax wroth when they backstab all of us; I’ll just loathe them a little more.
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