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.
Cornyn’s sappy election spots make me want to puke. When I heard one today I thought “Just how is voting FOR the debt ceiling increase pushing back against Obama?”. We have to send John Boy to the Dewhurst Retirement Home.
Well then, Cruz should be removed from the Senate by electing him as President.
Sarah/Ted!
Let’s do it!
I wouldn’t vote for this Back-Stabbing Quisling for County Dog-Catcher even if we were overrun with Chihuahuas. I have had it with him and the rest of the GOP Establishment.
I could and would support that ticket in ‘16!
That General and that lady would usher in a new era of FReedom, Liberty and prospertiy!
Great idea.
Then, Ted could be Sarah’s VP in 2024!
In the 1960s they used to blame it on the Rolling Stones
Ted Cruz for Commander in Chief!!!
When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, the Iranian mullahs folded up like cheap accordions and released the hostages. Even the fierce fanatical Ayatollah Khomeini (may he burn in hell!) wasn’t that stupid.
President Cruz will lead this nation back again to greatness!
Sen Cruz’ *district* is the ENTIRE state of Texas.
Frankly, at some point in time, I wouldn’t mind seeing TED CRUZ as Chief Justice of SCOTUS. I believe that is where he would prove to be most effective.
But, that’s just me.
Move to the State of TEXAS and you can do that from anywhere. :-)
It is not a District unless it is the District of Texas...
the problem is... you can’t negotiate with a liar, and that nothing can force Obama to actually hold up his end of ANY deal (assuming we even want a deal)
“How difficult is it really to control the borders?”
Oh, the treason lobby will eventually “secure the borders!” as the brainless Hannity urges them to do.
What they won’t do is deport the 20-30 million foreign nationals already squatting here inside the borders.
So the problem of illegal aliens will continue to fester and grow as it did during Dubya’s disgraceful tenure, much to the delight of the treason lobby who believe that Americans don’t have the spine to demand that 30 million foreign trespassers be deported back to their home countries.
If you don’t deport it’s amnesty by default.
I’m OK with that.
What I really, really want to see is the LIEberal mind-set completely and absolutely eliminated FRom our body politic!
Our public officials, elected, appointed and worker-bees reflect that bias, and I want to see it eliminated at all levels of government!
There are too damn many LIEberals in government, and they need to be smoked out and retired!
“2) No matter what we decide about the status of people who came here in violation of the law, stayed in violation of the law and who hold jobs in violation of the law, we must NEVER give them the right to vote.”
Man up, Buckwheat. If you’re not willing to demand that they be deported you’ve already lost the fight.
“Regarding illegals he recognizes they are here, currently working and that we will never have the will to forcibly send them back. So his solution is to give them a “red” card..”
Then the treason lobby has already won.
All of these half measures just slightly delay full citizenship and the final transformation of the USA into a Latin American country.
Either find the spine to deport the millions of foreign nationals squatting here illegally or lie back and accept the amnesty that is coming.
There is no middle ground. The ‘middle ground’ is a win for the treason lobby and their amnesty clients.
LOL!!!!!!!!
I needed that, thanks
It’s all Reagan’s fault that the Berlin Wall got torn down, too./s
Ha ha.
After the likes of Powell and Petraeus, I don’t trust someone with a military instead of a political record for high office. “Republican” in such circumstances is just too suspect for me.
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
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.