Dubya’s Anti-Endorsement of Cruz Couldn’t Have Come At a Better Time

Conservative Review ^ | October 26th, 2015 | Steve Deace

[Isara]

At long last, George W. Bush, the man who left the Republican Party in tatters as he left the White House, has some coattails.

His loose lips at a recent fundraiser last week about fellow Texan Ted Cruz have given the GOP presidential hopeful an invaluable shot of gravitas. And that’s saying something considering how Bush’s own brother, Jeb, has been running away from his family legacy by changing his surname to ‘exclamation point.’

But who wouldn’t rather declare punctuation as kin rather than a former claimant to the White House in this populist uprising disguised as an election? Nothing says vote for me like “I know my relatives either bore or vex you, but let me explain…”

Back to Cruz, though. According to Politico, Bush ’43 sized up Cruz as Jeb!’s toughest Republican opponent before heaping still more praise on him. In fact, big brother George gave Cruz the mother of all establishment endorsements.

“I just don’t like the guy,” Dubya said of Cruz, who previously served the former president as an advisor during his 2000 presidential bid.

Donald Trump called, and he thinks that’s a yuuuuuuge resume builder.

I know Cruz’s recent quarterly fundraising numbers were outstanding, but money can’t buy good tidings like that. You mean the ex-president, which every conservative goes out of their way not to mention on the way to deifying Ronald Reagan, doesn’t want you in his exclusive establishment club? The president who refused to openly criticize Barack Obama while the Marxist in the White House was dismantling the country thinks you worthy of his disdain? The ex-president who bottomed out in the polls and handed Congress to Pelosi-Reid has condemned you?

Well, I guess Cruz just won’t be able to call up Dubya when it comes time to abandon free market principles in order to save them or some horse puckey like that. In the meantime, he will just have to settle for being too cool for establishment school. And going into this week’s debate, the timing is outstanding.

Cruz has suffered a similar debate fate to several other GOP candidates the first two go-arounds—being forgotten. Long stretches of time have passed in a crowded field as no question has come his way and opportunities for rhetorical touchdowns have been missed. Yes, he has done just fine so far, but the road to the presidency will ultimately need a breakthrough moment or two.

Because the press likely won’t be able to help itself, Cruz should have such a moment set up on a tee for him on Wednesday, especially with speculation swirling that Dubya’s Bush brother Jeb! is prepping his last gasp. After the moderators try picking a fight between presumed frontrunners Trump and Ben Carson, Cruz’s turn will come to answer a version of the very question that has more or less defined the entirety of his Senate career: “Why is George W. Bush just the latest member of GOP leadership who has a problem with you?”

Cruz may have demurred when he was first asked to respond to Dubya’s “endorsement” last week, but that was then. No need to rush into an opportunity for a political disemboweling when millions are just days away from turning on their TVs to witness such thrills.

Then, when the time is right, you pounce like you’ve just come across a B-list Hollywood actress at the Iowa State Fair, or the overmatched president of the Sierra Club. No need for Cruz to pretend he isn’t dying to answer this question. In fact, if the first question directed at him during Wednesday’s debate doesn’t address Bush’s insult, he should proceed as if it was asked anyway.

Cruz needs to put his name on this. With big, bold letters.

Not with animus and bombast, but with winsome precision. Perhaps it’s just a simple matter of style that keeps two Texans from joining in common purpose, Cruz might suggest. Perhaps John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are more to Bush’s liking, what with their untold treachery and antipathy among the base. Or maybe those guys are just a hoot at all those fundraising parties where they collude against the Constitution.

Cruz should consider calling upon the spirit of Charles James Napier, the British Army’s 19^th Century commander-in-chief. When Hindu priests complained to him about the prohibition of Sati – the custom of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband – he replied:

"Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs."

Let us indeed. American Exceptionalism. Judeo-Christian heritage. Constitutional integrity. Sanctity of life. Religious liberty. Those are the national customs Cruz has vowed to uphold against the Sati-like perversions of GOP party hacks.

These are the pillars of our liberty the GOP establishment, including the Bushes, outright surrendered to the Left the last few decades. Wednesday’s debate is the perfect time to paint with bold colors the difference between real leadership and the establishment’s failure theater with about 20 million potential voters watching.

[Isara]

FYI

[100American]

As GWB is not the standard of Conservatism that people used to see him as what he says and thinks about a candidate has a small circle of influence.

Second as far as the down list squabble goes on with JB and others vying for the “Bush” crown it is at this point more what is called style points, nothing that I see oozing leadership in word and deed...

Cruz is a good guy...

Just not ready to lead the country, and being VP in this situation is just as important as it extends the actual involvement of the Top folks and that is when stuff happens..

Team...

[Isara]

Presidential Candidates Comparison (Bush vs. Carson vs. Cruz vs. Rubio vs. Trump)

Please click on the pictures at the top of the columns for more details on the ratings of the candidates.

Budget, Spending & Debt
Civil Liberties
Education
Energy & Environment
Foreign Policy & Defense
Free Market
Health Care & Entitlements
Immigration
Moral Issues
Second Amendment
Taxes, Economy & Trade

More at Conservative Review: https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-presidential-candidates

Note: If you don't like the ratings for any reason, please contact Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief, "The Great One," Mark Levin. But I have to warn you that you may get this response from him: "GET OFF THE PHONE, YOU BIG DOPE!"

[HiTech RedNeck]

I agree, the executive experience isn’t there. Cruz definitely ought to figure prominently in any post-win GOP plan, but an executive is needed in the Oval Office. The buck should be able to genuinely stop there.

[HiTech RedNeck]

We know who you like for president and we understand, but we wish you’d quit being inane. You post it, you own it, you can not pass buck to ACU or anyone else.

Let’s look at the executive experience and we will get a different view, for starters.

[Resolute Conservative]

What exactly does executive experience get us (Jimmah, LBJ, GWB, Fiorina at HP)? The constitution says nothing about experience. Cruz is better suited than anyone running.

I’ll take conservatism in any form over executive experience.

[100American]

If I may it is not that I am offended by your right to speak freely, is that not the core of this boards Raison d”etre??

Rather, it is the incessant posting of this comparative matrix...

For me if someone is banging something over and over, and I say OK got it and they continue....

I wonder if there is a way to post this kind of “statistical” information in one place so we all can get a look across the board

I am not at shutting down the fire in your hearts to make this country Great again...

W all need to do it together, that is how we started this hundreds of years ago

You are a Patriot!

[HiTech RedNeck]

The constitution says nothing about competency factors, but that doesn’t prevent them from blowing back on people who ignore them.

The result of no executive experience is to probably be a very bad people manager. No sense having the most wonderful ideas in the world if you can’t perform the appropriate shepherding and delegation and monitoring.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Remember, the Founding Fathers never wrote the Constitution of ultimate reality. God did.

[beelzepug]

Executive experience? Barack (s’cuse me) 0bama had that in spades, didn’t he? Oops, am I allowed to say ‘spade’?

[Isara]

Let’s look at the executive experience and we will get a different view, for starters.

Ted Cruz, as Solicitor General of Texas, led the office of 4,000 employees, including 700 lawyers.

During private practice at Morgan Lewis, Ted Cruz built their appellate practice to be one of the top 20 law firms on National Law Journal's "Appellate Hot List" in 2010.

[Resolute Conservative]

I’d bet that today’s “executive”, be it a governor or a CEO, has one or two person(s) who is/are their organizer. They hire people that make them look smart. GWB was a decent governor but he did not run the state.

I want someone who is firm in conviction rather than a sheep herder. After the last few governors we have had I lean to never vote for another one, ever.

[Isara]

Let's look at Trump's record on civil-liberty issue:

Do you think that we would be able to discuss issues freely in this forum under a Trump administration?

"Trump has an inconsistent record when it comes to civil liberties. He supported the NSA mass surveillance program but did not weigh in on the recently passed reforms. Overall, he has avoided commenting on religious freedom, but says he would be an advocate for Christians. Trump supports an individual’s right to make unlimited campaign contributions, but advocates for an end to soft money in politics. Most concerning is Trump’s belief that the government can use eminent domain powers to seize private property for economic benefit for others."

• Trump supports the NSA’s metadata collection program, saying, “I support legislation which allows the NSA to hold the bulk metadata. For oversight, I propose that a court, which is available any time on any day, is created to issue individual rulings on when this metadata can be accessed.” This position was identical to the NSA’s mass surveillance program before being reformed by the USA Freedom Act. (Newsweek) 
  
  
• Trump has avoided commenting on religious freedom since Indiana passed its Religious Freedom and Restoration Act into law. Instead, he has said that he will be the “greatest representative of the Christians they've had in a long time” if elected president. (Christian Today) (Breitbart)  
  
  
• Trump believes political soft money should be banned, while individuals should be allowed to make unlimited contributions. "If I were drawing a political cartoon to represent the situation, it would include a very large guy with a huge bag of money. On that bag would be written one word: soft. Soft money is the bane of the current system and we need to get rid of it." (The America We Deserve) 
  
  
• Trump supported the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, giving public authorities the right to seize private land for economic development by private investors. Trump said, “I happen to agree with [the decision] 100 percent.” (National Review)
  
  
• Trump highlighted his support for prosecuting "hate crimes" against homosexuals in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve. “Hate Crime” is a term used to extend special protections for a specific classes and in essence elevates the importance of these classes above others. For example, murder of homosexual or heterosexual should be viewed equally under the law and punished equally. Creating special classes is a liberal tactic used to divide and segment society.(Google Books)
  
  
• Trump said that Kim Davis should not have been jailed for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses. He also said that she should allow her deputy clerks to do so, but also said that 30 miles away you can get a license so people should do that. He added, "The decision's been made, and that is the law of the land." (CNN)
  
  
• Much like his stance on eminent domain, Donald Trump has shown a troubling tendency to want to use the power of government to stifle political speech. When the conservative Club for Growth released an advertisement regarding Trump's changing positions on taxation, Trump responded with a legal letter calling for them to cease and desist the advertisements. A chilling move towards the silencing of political speech. (Politico)

[100American]

Please state conclusions as opinions not fact, it changes the nature of the dialog

If you take that stance you close the door on any response, or you take a defend the fort posture defending your thoughts and listening to others is hampered...

Great first step..

[erod]

[Jeff Chandler]

Could you translate that into English? Thanks!

[editor-surveyor]

.
Surely W must have realized what effect his comments would have?

He is a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them.

The Cruz money pipe opened up in a big way just hours after his mouth shot.
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Cruz will figure big in selecting his cabinet.

Thanks for kinder-trolling!

Graham crackers and milk at noon.
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Cruz is clearly the only candidate ready to lead the country.

Senior ladies book club is not due till 3:00 PM.

Have a seat in the lobby.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Arrogant idiots don’t get along well with others; would you like a thread all to your self?