‘Cruz Caucus’ Talks Leadership Elections in Both Chambers

Roll Call ^ | Tuesday, June 24, 2014 | Matt Fuller

[kristinn]

Sen. Ted Cruz held another closed-door meeting with House conservatives Tuesday night, sitting down with insurgents over pizza in his office for a free-flowing discussion about immigration, leadership elections, the IRS and recent changes at the Republican Study Committee.

Over the course of about an hour and a half, 14 of the most conservative members of the House piled into Cruz’s Dirksen office for what was described in an email as an off-the-record gathering of “discussion and fellowship.”

The attendees were, in the order in which they first arrived: Doug Lamborn of Colorado, Trent Franks of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, John Fleming of Louisiana, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Steve Stockman of Texas, Paul Broun of Georgia, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, Ted Yoho of Florida, Steve Pearce of New Mexico and Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. (Lamborn was facing a primary race back home.)

This isn’t the first time Cruz has met quietly with House conservatives. Most notably, he met in the basement of Tortilla Coast with about 15-20 House Republicans during the government shutdown in October. He also met with a similar group of House Republicans in his office in April.

The topics of conversation at these meetings have been the subject of vivid speculation.

But Tuesday night Cruz looked to downplay the whole affair as he entered the meeting at 7:09 p.m.

“You guys have made a mountain out of a molehill,” the Texas Republican told CQ Roll Call. He noted that he had met with conservatives “periodically,” and he implied that this sort of meeting really isn’t such a big deal.But according to members leaving the meeting, the discussion was not of the molehill variety.

[kristinn]

Cruz also spoke to Roll Call about the smuggling cartels' reported dismembering of children as part of ransom plots.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Probably trying to figure out how to get rid of Boehner.

[SharpRightTurn]

“Probably trying to figure out how to get rid of Boehner.”

We can only hope.