Posted on 12/14/2015 3:41:18 PM PST by Kaslin
Via MFP, six months after the birth of Trumpmania, this is what finally raised a red flag? Trump arguing that Cruz is a bit of a “maniac” for taking on the entire Senate when it might pose a problem for a president who’ll need friends in Congress to help him pass his agenda?
Guy Benson wrote this last week about Trump’s many admirers in conservative talk radio:
Here’s how the coy game has worked: When Trump is right, they praise him. Fine. When Trump is factually wrong, while making an argument that may contain a “larger truth,” they justify his inaccuracies. When Trump lies, they deflect and excuse. And when Trump does something indefensible, they side-step the substance, resorting to marveling at how masterful he is at “driving a narrative,” playing the media, and aggravating all the ‘right’ people. Sure, he may be a sloppy, impulsive, non-conservative ignoramus on actual policy, but at least “he fights” in a manner that gratifies our audience’s political id; plus, “without him, we wouldn’t even be talking about [fill in the blank]!” There’s never an explicit endorsement, mind you, just loads of adulation. And airtime.
A nice description of how things have worked so far, but not today. Rush could have left it at calling Trump’s attack a “huge mistake” but he goes so far here as to say that if you think Trump’s a “genuine conservative,” which apparently some people do, this should probably cure you of that notion.
Often on Twitter lately you’ll find righties urging Cruz to hit Trump for being an egregious RINO and nearly as often you’ll find Cruz fans responding with, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A Trump/Cruz fight would be quite a boost for your boy Rubio.” Cruz himself alluded to that on Friday when he said “the establishment” wants a cage match between him and Trump. Some do, sure, and as soon as Cruz is finished with taking down Trump, they’ll turn on Cruz as also unacceptably “extreme” and start pushing Rubio. But some Trump critics want Cruz to engage, I think, because they believe that’s the only way to get conservative opinion-makers to finally start targeting Trump, which might loosen his hold on some of the tea partiers who prefer him (for the moment). It’s not about boosting Rubio, it’s just about finishing Trump. He could finish himself off and “prove” he’s a RINO by attacking a true-conservative sacred cow, but there’s no reason to think he will at this point. Trump’s been pretty savvy about passing the right’s major litmus tests: He’ll cross them on a boutique issue like eminent domain but on cultural meat-and-potatoes subjects like abortion, guns, and Christianity (the Bible’s the only book ever written that’s better than his own, you know), he toes the line. He’s not going to go out there and say that Ronald Reagan was a terrible president. He has a decent enough sense of what’s disqualifying in the primary and what isn’t.
The other way to “prove” he’s a RINO is to have him go to war with a populist conservative hero. The problem is that Trump himself is now a populist hero for some conservatives, which means other heroes like Rush are risking RINO accusations if they take him on. (“How much is the establishment paying you to attack Donald?”) That’s how you end up with the phenomenon Benson wrote about, where Rush is out there day after day praising Trump while taking care never to endorse him or to claim that the Trump policy du jour is a good “conservative” plan. If Trump attacks Rush or Sarah Palin or some other talk radio star, he risks losing some conservative cred. If Rush attacks Trump, he risks losing some populist cred. Everyone benefits from playing nice. The crucial exception is Ted Cruz, who’s competing with Trump for the same job and can’t avoid a conflict with him. Cruz is holding off because he understands the point about losing populist cred by questioning Trump’s conservatism and thinks he can win Iowa without attacking. Trump, who’s now behind there and who sees Cruz creeping up in other polls, either feels he can’t wait any longer to attack or he thinks that he’ll pay no price for doing so. Today’s jab is Rush’s polite way, I assume, of urging him to rethink that. Populist opinion-makers will stay out of Trump’s way so long as he’s not attacking conservatism or its leading avatars. Once he forces them to choose, they’ll choose and he won’t like the choice. After years of Bushes and McCain and Romneys, they’re not going to knife a brilliant ideological conservative with a real chance at the nomination like Ted Cruz just because some listeners are jazzed about Trump’s temporary ban on Muslims.
In fact, the audio only gives you a taste of what Rush said about Trump today. He objected to the “maniac” attack on Cruz because it was an establishment argument, but he objected to what Trump said about ethanol and affirmative action on more traditional grounds:
And then he dumped on Cruz for being opposed to ethanol? In other words, we as Republicans must support government subsidies to corn farmers in Iowa if we’re to have any chance of winning Iowa? We’ve gotta stand for subsidies? And that, again, is not a conservative position. To go after Cruz on that basis, is again the way the Democrats and the media would go after him, and then there was this Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Jake Tapper.
“What do you think of Justice Scalia’s remarks, and where are you today on affirmative action?”
TRUMP: I thought it was very tough to the African-American community, actually. I don’t like what he said. I actually saw it in print, and I’m going… I read a lot of stuff. I’m going, “Whoa.” I have great African-American friendships. I have just amazing relationships. But, yeah, I was very surprised at Scalia’s statements, actually.
RUSH: Well, they weren’t “Scalia’s statements.” They were arguments that had been submitted to the court that he was engaging in oral argument over. But these are two things that… If you’re a conservative voter in the Republican primary, these two things have gotta raise some red flags for you people, I would think.
That’s not a formal endorsement of Cruz over Trump but it’s clear which of the two a good conservative should prefer. (Should a good conservative also prefer Rubio to Trump?) Presumably more of this is in store for Trump if he continues to attack, including/especially at the debate tomorrow night. That raises the price for him. Is attacking still worth doing now with Iowa nearly two months away?
Rush Limbaugh: Trump made "huge mistake" attacking Ted Cruz
Trump tried to run as a conservative, but his liberal side is starting to show. So now the argument for Trump is “Yeah, we know Trump’s not a conservative, but he talks tough and he’s the only one who can win.” Sorry, I strongly disagree that Cruz can’t win, not only do I think he will win, I think he will wipe the floor with Hillary and give the Dems a spanking of 1980s proportions. And even if he doesn’t win, I want to go down swinging for what’s right, I’m supporting the conservative in this race. If we support the populist Trump and compromise our principles to win, what good is it going to do when he takes power and enacts an agenda that is not conservative?
Trump calling anyone a maniac is the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black
So you don’t like that Trump said Thomas was the best Supreme court justice ever?
Feel free to believe a man who has flip-flopped on nearly every issue if you please. I'm smarter than that.
To be fair, Trump isn't a maniac. He is an egomaniac.
The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll shows Ted Cruz doing better than Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. Hillary beats Donald Trump 50% to 40%, but she only beats Ted Cruz 48% to 45%. Yet the myth persists that only Donald Trump can beat Hillary.
As for Hillary, she’s been slowly falling in the polls against Bernie Sanders. Bernie now has 37% support among Democrats, which means that Hillary will have no choice but to include an old Jewish firebrand Socialist on her ticket, which will mean almost certain defeat for the Democrats.
Meanwhile, with Ted Cruz rising, the prospect of the Republicans nominating a genuine true-blue Conservative candidate who can beat Hillary and become president is becoming a distinct possibility — IF Conservatives will join forces behind Ted.
Donald Trump is not merely a non-Conservative; at this point he has become a living anti-Conservative monkey-wrench sabotaging the hopes of finally having a true Conservative in the White House again after 36 post-Reagan years. So how can Conservatives continue to support Donald Trump?
Rush Limbaugh on Donald Trump: "Uh, Donald Trump is I think doing a great service. He is showing that you do not have to fear attacks from the media. Republicans do not have to fear attacks from the media. He's showing you do not have to fear being political correct or violating political correctness."
Rush is wrong but some n00b pushing a liberal candidate is right? I don't think so.
As I said, you've got nothing.
btw...Cruz gets a lifetime ACU conservative rating of 100%.
Trump, being a liberal, wouldn't even rate.
Since when is "finishing Trump" not about pushing Rubio and the RiNO agenda of shamnesty, wagebreaking, Obamacare, and McKinleyism?
Good question, I've been waiting for an answer to that one for a while and not hearing one.
Bears-repeating bump.
That's basically the same explanation real conservatives offered for not supporting Mittens in 2012: Mittens, if elected, could have done far more damage to the conservative movement, as President and Party leader, than Obama has done.
In addition, he'd have likely tried to pass Romneycare at the federal level (surprise!) because the Fortune 500 |proprietor+manager| class were screaming for a federal excuse to dump employee healthcare costs on the public sector.
And, Romney'd have done it under the aegis of the GOP while calling for "party unity", creating a rightist "PUMA" movement in lieu of the Tea Party. That movement could never, with the e-GOP in adverse possession of both the Party and the Government, have challenged Sovietcare as lucidly and as effectively as the Tea Party has done.
I guess Rush is MSM RINO scum now, like everyone else who dares say a word against ANYTHING Trump has ever done or said.
He’s defending Cruz and Scalia from Trump so he must be for Jeb!!! That’s just cold hard logic!!
You don’t get it, n00b. Between Cruz and Trump, Cruz is by far the most conservative which means you are supporting the most LIBERAL candidate. I know you have no credibility to stake, but your desperation is showing.
If you want to vote based on words and promises, Trump is your man. I do like that he isn’t politically correct, but that alone doesn’t qualify him.
Trump simply says what he thinks at any particular moment. If he thinks it will move his agenda forward, all the better. Instead of looking at Trump’s current words, look at his past words and deeds to help you determine who he really is.
My vote will go to someone who has remained steadfast in his positions and conservative beliefs. Someone who doesn’t rub shoulders with the establishment elite, now or in the past.
More:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/14/rush-limbaugh-donald-trump-attack-on-ted-cruz-video/
http://www.redstate.com/2015/12/14/limbaugh-calls-trump-genuine-conservative-go-cruz-way-video/
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