Posted on 02/15/2014 8:38:41 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
These days, it’s popular to claim that Senator Ted Cruz is only looking out for himself. And this is undoubtedly true. Much in the same way John McCain is only looking out for himself and Chuck Schumer is only looking out for himself, and every millionaire Senator looking to hold on to his or her seat in perpetuity is looking out for #1. Cruz just happens to be better at it.
Take the kerfuffle over the debt-ceiling vote. When Mitch McConnell met with Senate Republicans colleagues this week, he proposed that they allow a vote on the House debt limit bill without GOP objection, a tacit surrender that would allow passage with a simple 51-vote majority. The 55 Senate Democrats, who would rather see the government shut down than concede to compromise, would win and then save the GOP from the inevitable political blowback that accompanies capitulation. (Now, if only the Republicans deployed the same level of creativity in their battles as they do in their surrenders, victory would be theirs!)
Rather than allow this expedient maneuver to place, Cruz demanded the Senate reach a 60-vote threshold, forcing five Republicans to join Democrats in the hike. This, predictably, infuriated the GOP establishment. McCain accused Cruz of instigating “needless drama that helps to explain why Republicans remain a minority.”
Yeah, that’s why.
What’s Cruz’s sin here? That he forced the GOP to be transparent about its position — a position that seems pretty reasonable considering the political realities of the situation. According to Betsy Woodruff’s reporting, most Republicans had no interest in voting for an increase. It’s preposterous to claim, no matter how often the Tea Party does, that moderate GOPers are “no better” than liberals simply because they’re losing on this issue. But if the debt ceiling isn’t a hill worth dying on – and it certainly isn’t – leadership should have explained this explicitly rather than leading on the base. It was only back in January when McConnell told the faithful on national television that some of “the most significant legislation passed in the past 50 years has been in conjunction with the debt limit. I think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling when we have a debt this size of our economy is irresponsible.” What McConnell should have added then is: but there’s nothing we can do about it right now. We have to work on winning more seats, and then we can stop this endless cycle of irresponsible spending.
In a recent piece, National Review’s Charles Cooke defends the GOP establishment’s handling of this and other battles: “In my estimation, the only thing of which Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have been guilty in the past few years is to have worked tirelessly within political reality and to have reacted sensitively to the hands that they were dealt.” Overall, I agree. Moreover, the House doesn’t get enough credit for putting a hard stop to the Democrats’ overly ambitious progressive agenda. Obstructing bad legislation is as valuable, if not more valuable, than working to make terrible legislation marginally less terrible. The GOP House successfully brought balance to Washington after a hard left turn by Democrats.
But life’s not fair. McConnell and Boehner don’t lead, they manage. And they’re about to lose the party. For starters, any fresh conservative ideas in the Senate are coming from Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio (who’s on thin ice, I know). They, like Ted Cruz, and like Senator Barack Obama before him, understand the appeal of idealism over pragmatism to those out of power. Obama voted against what is the now-sacred debt ceiling hike because he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you’re going to surrender, at the very least don’t make it look easy. And don’t try to cover up the terms.
As much as some of us are fans of “dysfunction,” tactically speaking, playing defense forever is no strategy. Yes, the establishment works tirelessly within the political realities of the day. Cruz, it seems, is more interested in changing the reality of his situation. Forcing a 60-vote threshold on the debt ceiling wasn’t only about the debt ceiling (which Cruz surely understood would be hiked), and it wasn’t only about his presidential ambitions (which he surely has), but creating the type of problems for the GOP that will help bring a bunch of Matt Bevins into the Senate and solidify his position.
If they attain more power, Tea Party conservatives may accept that tactical victories can often have more impact than a hollow but self-gratifying stand. At some point, they may accept that one of most effective weapons in policymaking — one that the Left uses with great success — is incrementalism. Fair or not, though, the problem with today’s Republican Party is that the only incrementalism people see is incremental surrender. Like the completely unnecessary debt ceiling lose. And if the establishment doesn’t turn that perception around in a hurry, they won’t be the establishment for much longer.
Never fall in love with a politician. They will break your heart every time.
(my favorite quote from the late Lee Rodgers)
Wow.
I was never a fan of the moth threads that the boss set up some years ago. I thought those were a mistake and still do. But posts like this make me understand WHY there were moth threads.
/johnny
The worst part of that was I had to stop telling Mrs. JimRed that she was spending like a Democrat!
That is something the democrats say to try and blame something on Republicans that didn't happen. Now why don't you bring up the “Republican war on women”. That hasn't happened either.
Thanks for the info on Ted Cruz. He went to high school right around the corner from my house! I did not know that!
That sounds great! Wish I could have been there.
Thanks for posting. He went to high school ALMOST in my backyard! We need more kids to become and accomplish what Sen Ted Cruz has.
Yep.
You know what exactly is a single senator supposed to do in a leaderless party full of cowardly backstabbers outside of lead and expose the backstabbers by being stabbed in the back by them?
The rest is up to us, and Old Retired Amry Stalker doesn’t appear to be up to the task at all.
The Founders would Love Ted.
and then we can stop this endless cycle of irresponsible spending.
Pffft...yeah, right.
“Like it or not...”
I love it!
Finally, a conservative, real
man takes charge and does something.
Like it or not? What’s not to like?
Decision time: Hunker down with the Obsolete RINOs, or CHARGE the Left flanks of “both” Political Parties with Senators Cruz and Lee!
____________________________________________
Ponder this:
As Americans, WE are used to patiently, and silently waiting for solutions to problems to come from the top down.
This lazy attitude has been the basis for most Military, Corporate and Political Management structures in America for most of OUR History.
WE now have the ultimate in lazy, top-down, political structure: a rouge dictator whom WE allow to be above OUR Constitutional Law.
WE will continue to have the current Obama Dictatorship as long as the Chief Impeachment Official, ( CIO ), the Speaker of the House, is allowed by US to permit Obama to continue as a OUR Dictator.
In all of Obama’s public statements, he has told the truth to US only twice:
1.) “We are only five days away from fundamentally changing the United States of America.”
and
2.) “I have a pen and a telephone, and I will use them to issue Executive Orders whenever Congress fails to act.”
Obama has thus defined himself to be OUR Dictator, and formally gave US fair warning of his intentions to do so.
For reasons that border on High Treason to the United States of America, Boehner as Speaker of the House, has failed his Constitutional Duty to begin Impeachment Proceedings on B. Hussein Obama.
The Members of the US House of Representatives have refused to force Boehner to resign; then to elect a Speaker with the required Sense of Honor to do his/her Constitutional Duty to begin Formal Impeachment Proceedings on B. Hussein Obama.
If WE, the taxpayers, do not force the Members of the US House of Representatives to replace Boehner as Speaker with a new Speaker that will issue the necessary Articles of Impeachment on B. Hussein Obama, then WE, the lazy, silent majority taxpayers, deserve to continue to have OUR Liberties crushed by Dictator Obama.
The future of OUR Republic is, as always, in OUR hands.
DONT TREAD ON ME
Incorrect. Only since 1933, when the New Deal destroyed American civil society. Read Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville to see what this country was like when we had a vibrant civil society.
Was the New Deal a top down management decision?
It was our first top-down management paradigm outside of war. From 1933 onward, when people gathered, it was not to actually fix the problem, but to petition a governmental entity to fix the problem. It removed initiative from the people. They had to get permission from government to act.
..WE, the lazy, silent majority taxpayers, deserve to continue to have OUR Liberties crushed by Dictator Obama.
*******
Bull.That ship has sailed.
I’ve been writing, calling, emailing, pleading, protesting and active for over 15 years! They do not listen! They work for big banks..not us.
This isn’t going to end well so I hope you are ready and not being “lazy”.
Read about the Moguls in the 1800’s that built this Country.
Ideas came from one or two men, and were implemented by the people that were glad to get the work.
In War, the General orders and the troops obey, the very essence of fighting a successful War, but is terribly wrong for Government because it inevitably leads to a Dictatorship: Stalin; Mao; Hitler; Mussolini; Batista; and Obama.
In Government the Democrat’s Dictator dictates, and the RINOs refuse to do their Constitutional duty.
Laws are written by a few, and only read by them before they are passed.
We, the lazy taxpayer, stand back and do not help Cruz and Lee topple the corrupt “both” political party system.
This is a bottom up fight for the future of America, because the last five years is proof of what does not work.
Hunker down, or fight on. I choose the latter, win, lose or draw.
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