IN YER HOWZ...
Posted on 02/13/2014 4:51:45 PM PST by SeekAndFind
There’s no man or woman in red-state America these days with more power than Cruz to set a new conservative litmus test. But c’mon: How many of you need to be formally warned at this point by your favorite Republican that the House is looking to sell out border hawks on immigration reform? It’s like blaming Rand Paul for turning libertarians against the NSA. He plays a useful role in bringing attention to the issue, but those people turned on their own initiative ages ago. Same here.
Cruz won’t mind being blamed for this one, though.
House Republicans who supported the “principles” of immigration reform floated by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, late last month grumbled Tuesday that the plan was dead on arrival because Cruz blasted it as “amnesty,” spurring a blizzard of negative phone calls to House Republicans…
Later that day [on January 30th, when the House GOP released its immigration principles], while Boehner was closeted with colleagues miles from the nation’s capital, Cruz used back-to-back television appearances to invoke the politically charged word “amnesty” to characterize the legalization offered by Boehner’s plan.
By the time the GOP caucus broke up and Boehner headed back to Capitol Hill on Jan. 31, the House speaker was backtracking. Republican lawmakers so distrusted President Obama’s readiness to enforce any immigration law that GOP lawmakers would not support immigration reform before the 2014 midterm congressional elections in November, Boehner declared.
Asked about his influential remarks Tuesday, Cruz said the Boehner plan was “inconsistent with the rule of law” and “a political mistake,” adding that he was “glad to see Republicans in the House agreed.”
Would any tea-party Republicans in the House have embraced the leadership’s immigration plan if Cruz had kept quiet? It’s not pressure from big-name conservatives that keeps them in line, it’s the fact that they come from overwhelmingly red districts and know what backing amnesty would mean for their primary chances. The more interesting thought experiment is what would have happened if Cruz had shocked the world and declared that Boehner’s plan sounded promising. That might have shaken loose some conservative votes for amnesty; there’s no sturdier political cover on the right at the moment than being able to say that Ted Cruz supports your position. I wonder if he’s ever tempted to do it, if only to bigfoot rivals like Rubio and Rand Paul by showing them he can bring righties around on an immigration deal to an extent that they can’t. Or maybe he doubts that he even has that much cachet. If Rubio’s tea-party cred could be incinerated in one stroke by trying to lead on this issue, why on earth would Cruz touch it?
His next conservative venture, incidentally, is the State Marriage Defense Act, which he introduced with Mike Lee yesterday. That’s a response both to the Supreme Court’s Windsor decision last year, striking down part of DOMA, and to Holder’s announcement earlier this week that the DOJ will begin acknowledging same-sex marriages as legitimate for federal legal purposes (e.g., invoking the spousal privilege during federal trials) regardless of whether the underlying state law recognizes them or not. Cruz’s and Lee’s bill would force the feds to follow state marriage law as guidance on that. It’s going nowhere in the Senate, needless to say, but it’s a smart bit of politics in both tackling a subject of social conservative concern and proposing a federalist solution to it that centrists can live with.
I’m adopting Sen Cruz as my senator until Alexander and what’s his face are replaced with Conservatives.
God Bless Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz is standing strong for the United States Constitution.
Cruz smokes out the RINO’s and they hate him for it.
God speed Ted.
Nations all around the world do it.
A senator my friend. He covers a state not a district.
There is really not much more to say...
I’m more impressed with Cruz each day. If he were Senate Minority Leader with 45 Republicans, he would tie the Senate in knots and make Harry Reed cry.
With McConnell we get nothing.
What makes you think Mattis would be a good president?
Tsk, tsk
Feel so bad for them...not
Ted Cruz is trying to save what is left of our country, while whores and traitors like Boehner and the weasel Cantor try to deep six us.
Cruz for President.
Couldn’t Ted serve in the Senate and also be the speaker of the House?
Man, the perks must be outstanding! They are scared to death they won’t get re-elected.
“We need to find men and women who go to serve instead of to cash in.”
Since Obama has done NOTHING at all but diminish our Military in all areas (equipment, personnel, morale, etc) as well as encouraged and emboldened our Enemies across the globe, we are going to be required to have somebody in our White House that can re-establish TRUST with our Allies and instill the necessary FEAR in our Enemies while rebuilding our military that has been abused and neglected for the past 5 years, now.
In critical periods of our history, this country has turned to a former general to guide us through treacherous waters. I believe that JAMES MATTIS is decidedly qualified to do exactly that.
Besides, it’s about damned time that America have a MARINE as C-I-C.
OooRah!
Yes, cruz for majority leader, Scott walker for President
LOL! Go Cruz!
| Free Republic 1st Quarter Fundraising Target: $85,000 | Receipts & Pledges to-date: $47,252 | |||
|
||||
| Woo hoo!! And we're now over 55%!! Thank you all very much!! | ||||
I like Scott Walker, too. He’s a good guy.
However, I really want someone who knows and understands our Enemies and the very real threats to our country....Foreign as well as DOMESTIC. The mess that Obama and his minions have made will require a very strong and capable leader. One that understands and has felt the sting of battle.
You really don’t think that Obama and those toads are just going to slink off without some kind of crap, do you?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.