Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Don’t make us pick a side: Ted Cruz and Karl Rove engage in heated war of words
Salon ^ | June 29, 2015 | Sophia Tesfaye

Posted on 06/29/2015 12:09:53 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

Ted Cruz didn’t just lament “some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history” after the Supreme Court’s rulings on Obamacare and marriage equality late last week — he somehow also mustered up the energy to engage in a war of words with political strategist and Fox News contributor Karl Rove.

The Tea Party Senator and Republican presidential candidate is out with a new book, titled “A Time for Truth,” in which he reveals a whole host of autobiographical tidbits including claims that his Cuban-born father once tried to join Fidel Castro’s army, that he had a porn-watching session with Supreme Court justices and that Karl Rove once threatened and bullied him, a claim that Rove has already called a lie.

The all but obligatory political memoir by presidential aspirants (or sometimes not) tends to be a bore, full of forced humility and devoid of introspective honesty but conservative firebrand Sen. Cruz’s forthcoming book promises to at least be entertaining.

Cruz describes a time when as a law clerk to then Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, he had the opportunity to watch porn with Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as research for a case about online porn regulation.

“We were in front of a large computer screen gazing at explicit, hard-core pornography,” Cruz explains. “A slew of hard-core, explicit images showed up onscreen … as we watched these graphic pictures fill our screens, wide-eyed, no one said a word. Except for Justice O’Connor, who lowered her head, squinted slightly, and muttered, ‘Oh, my.’”

Cruz also discusses his father’s failed attempt to join Fidal Castro’s army and tells of the time he showed up to an Ivy League admissions interview hungover, but it is his account of political strong-arming by Texas political operative Karl Rove that is most juicy.

The conservative blog Brietbart.com, published an excerpt of Cruz’s book, highlighting the tale of intimidation by Rove after Cruz sought George H.W. Bush’s endorsement for Texas Attorney General back in 2009:

“Karl had found out about my meeting with George H.W. Bush and called me on the phone. He was irate, demanding, ‘What in the hell do you think you are doing?!”

[...]

Rove was “in the process of helping raise money for the George W. Bush presidential library in Dallas,” and that “Texas donors were giving the Bushes tens of millions, including major donors who were supporting the Dallas state rep who wanted to run for attorney general,” so those donors “were now berating Karl.”

[...]

“Yeah, well I didn’t think you were going to get support from 41.”

[...]

“He suggested that the elder Bush was too old to have good judgment anymore.”

[...]

“Return the check,” Rove replied.

“Well, I can’t do that,” Cruz responded. “We already deposited it.”

“I pointed out that under Texas’s election law, we had to list the contribution on our ethics disclosure report,” Cruz wrote, noting that Rove “paused for a few seconds.”

“All right, fine,” Rove told him. “Then I want you to do nothing whatsoever to draw attention to it.”

And then he pulled out the hammer. He implied that if I made any news about Bush 41’s support, then Bush 43 would endorse my opponent and come out publicly for him—a threat that was fairly striking given that I had devoted four years of my life to working as hard as I could helping to elect Bush and serving in his administration. I always wondered whether Karl had the authority to make these threats on behalf of the former president—he certainly acted like he did.

Cruz wrote that Rove’s tactics and threats to withhold the crucial Bush endorsement and donation from him left his wife “trembling, and visibly angry.” His wife, Heidi, reportedly complained, “This is what’s screwed up about the Republican Party. Why the hell should the Republican nominee for attorney general in Texas depend not on their qualifications, but on who the donors are to the Bush presidential library?”

Rove apparently took great exception to Cruz’s account and rushed to pen a response, posted on Medium Sunday, arguing “my recollection of the phone call he references from six years ago (2009) differs from his reported account.” Rove used the opportunity to throw a personal dig at Cruz vis-a-vis his 2016 rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio:

My call to Mr. Cruz apparently didn’t offend him back then because he continued seeking my counsel about his political ambitions, specifically his 2012 bid for the U.S. Senate. One piece of advice I offered was that he should stop describing himself as the “next Marco Rubio,” since he did not have Senator Rubio’s outstanding legislative record of accomplishments as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

[...]

When Mr. Cruz and I talked in 2009, I was not raising money for the Bush Library, nor was former President Bush 43 going to endorse some unnamed Dallas state representative for state attorney general, nor were any library donors “berating” me.

Cruz wasted no time firing back at Rove with a post to his campaign website Sunday evening, titled A Time For Truth Isn’t Just The Name Of Sen. Cruz’s New Book, publishing past email correspondence between the two men that purportedly corroborates Cruz’s version of events.

And Cruz went directly after Rove, writing on his website:

I have known Karl Rove for a long time, and have considered him a friend. I understood that my recounting in my book A Time for Truth the threats he made in the 2009 Texas Attorney General race—and the disparaging remarks he made about President George H.W. Bush—would cause him some discomfort.

“But I never imagined that his response would be a straight-out falsehood. It’s disappointing; this is why people are so cynical about politics, because too many people are willing to lie.

According to the Washington Post, Rove’s chief of staff confirmed some of the emails released by Cruz but said Rove has no recollection or record of others.

Cruz’s book comes out on Tuesday.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016; 2016election; atimefortruth; cruz; demagogicparty; election2016; karlrove; memebuilding; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; rove; salon; sophiatesfaye; tedcruz; texas
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last
Pinning Rove's ears back.

Nice.


1 posted on 06/29/2015 12:09:53 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

> “Don’t make us pick a side: Ted Cruz and Karl Rove engage in heated war of words”

Salon? SALON??? what?


2 posted on 06/29/2015 12:13:02 PM PDT by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

I’ll pick a side. I pick Cruz over Rove. It isn’t even tough. I do not like Rove at all. Anyone he backs is tainted by the association.


3 posted on 06/29/2015 12:13:20 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Crosdaddy just made his 3rd donation to Ted


4 posted on 06/29/2015 12:15:51 PM PDT by crosdaddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife; Kale; Jarhead9297; COUNTrecount; notaliberal; DoughtyOne; MountainDad; ...
    Ted Cruz Ping!

    If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
    Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

    CRUZ or LOSE!

5 posted on 06/29/2015 12:17:34 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife; SoConPubbie

LOLOLOL.

No contest!


6 posted on 06/29/2015 12:24:16 PM PDT by onyx (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! God bless)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

I also would pick Cruz over Rove...Rove has gone to the ‘dark side’ or has he always been there?


7 posted on 06/29/2015 12:25:25 PM PDT by HarleyLady27 (Send 'slob boy of the oval office' back to Kenya ASAP, and save America...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hostage

I think Salon picks Cruz!

: )


8 posted on 06/29/2015 12:25:33 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: onyx
No contest!

None at all.

9 posted on 06/29/2015 12:26:20 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Rove is such an elitist snob.
10 posted on 06/29/2015 12:26:38 PM PDT by TexasCajun (Hillary: Ethically Sleazy & Politically Stupid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: crosdaddy

Put the wood to him Ted!


11 posted on 06/29/2015 12:27:49 PM PDT by VRWCarea51 (The original 1998 version)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: Post5203

Indeed.


13 posted on 06/29/2015 12:32:06 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

On my list of Republicans who should have nothing to do with public policy, this ___hole comes in at the top.


14 posted on 06/29/2015 12:44:26 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Post5203

Couldn’t have said it better myself! Hang him around Bush’s neck for eternity.


15 posted on 06/29/2015 12:45:07 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
depend not on their qualifications, but on who the donors are to the Bush presidential library

When we start asking ourselves why the Repugnants sold us down the river, we just need to follow the money. The GOP-E lies down faster than a whore in need of a fix.

16 posted on 06/29/2015 12:52:44 PM PDT by LouAvul (Liberalism: more than just a mental illness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

My estimation of Ted Cruz increases in direct inverse proportion to Carl Rove’s disdain for him. In other words...if Rove’s against him, I’m for him!


17 posted on 06/29/2015 12:57:09 PM PDT by pgkdan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Karl Rove is the GOP version of George Step-On-All-Of-Us!

He is a useless tool, trying to make excuses for his past mistakes and trying to keep himself relative to the modern era.

Don’t go away angry, Karl...just GO AWAY!


18 posted on 06/29/2015 12:59:12 PM PDT by ExTxMarine (Public sector unions: A & B agreeing on a contract to screw C!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hostage
Only from Salon's communist perspective do Cruz and Rove look comparably conservative.
19 posted on 06/29/2015 1:00:05 PM PDT by ConservingFreedom (A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

What a POS that person is.....Satan’s b8tch boy.


20 posted on 06/29/2015 1:06:37 PM PDT by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson