Posted on 01/26/2016 1:00:07 PM PST by true believer forever
While Cruz is running for president in 2016 as the consummate outsider, he launched his political career as a Bush administration insider, and his relationship with the GOP establishment is far deeper and more complex than he lets on.
On the trail today, Cruz bashes the "Washington cartel," jokes of being so hated in the U.S. Capitol that he needs a "food-taster," and says at nearly every stop, "If you see a candidate Washington embraces, run and hide."
But 16 years ago, as a young domestic policy adviser for Bush's 2000 campaign, Cruz himself had sought Washington's embrace. He uprooted his life, taken an 80 percent pay cut and moved to Austin, Texas, with visions of a big, important White House job to follow.
Almost from his arrival at Bush's headquarters, colleagues say Cruz flashed many of the same assets and liabilities still on his political balance sheet: acumen and ambition, combative and conservative instincts, elbows as sharp as his smarts, a knack for self-promotion and rubbing colleagues the wrong way.
When Bush won, however, Cruz would not get the White House post he had dreamed of; instead, he found himself in the bureaucratic backwater of the Federal Trade Commission.
The snub marked a crucial inflection point in Cruz's career, one that led the young lawyer to soon give up on Washington. In just over two years, he'd move back to Texas where he would reinvent himself as solicitor general and climb the political ladder anew, this time as a fire-breathing, tea-partying, anti-Washington insurgent.
No surprise here. Best as I can tell pre 2010 TEA revolution Cruz was a mainline GOPe conservative careerist.
Nonsense. Very few of us were rebelling against the GOPe in 2000.
Horseshit! You really want to take Politico’s advice as to who the real conservative is? Why don’t we just call Dick Durbin or maybe Chuck Schumer for advice? Seriously...
Cruz scares the hell out of all elements of the uniparty.
Oh no! SIXTEEN years ago, Cruz had a different approach to his career.
Nobody has ever changed their approach to life or politics due to age or experience.
Ted thought he could change the system by working within the power structure.
He found out he couldn’t.
Feature not bug, but nice try.
I was one that was.
This was 2004, at the end of Bush's first term, where he had a position. He thought at the end of the first term he would have a plum job he had his sites on. It went to someone else and Cruz left the administration, went back to Tennessee and reinvented himself as a Tea Partier.
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Rafael is a Bushie. So is Heidi. It’s how he has risen to where he is, as the stealth GOPe candidate. Jeb was the straw man to take the public’s eye off the ball in typical DC fashion.
How did Ryan become speaker? Ted and the Freedom Caucus. How establishment is that?
Don’t look behind the curtain...
And damned proud of that fact.
The GOPe's ways stunk to high heaven even back then.
Compassionate conservative? Really?
And even before then I lost a lot of respect for Jack Kemp when he abandoned his conservative friends in that horrible debate against RoboGore.
Hahaha But the Mouth of Manhattan’s change on numerous positions since last summer is
get this
‘a slow Transformation.’ LOL
He found out he couldn't.
Feature not bug, but nice try.
Actually,you're a little misconstrued. Cruz served in the first Bush administration. Made many positive statements about Bush in a book about Bush's Presidency, while he had his eyes on a plum job in the second administration. When he didn't get the job, he went back to Texas and re-invented himself as a Tea Partier.
In Cruz' own words:
These are outtakes from August 2004, Cruz contributed to this long-forgotten but fascinating historical document, a book-length brief for Bush's reelection called Thank You, President Bush: Reflections on the War on Terror, Defense of the Family, and Revival of the Economy.
Regarding Bush and Government Spending:
Although Cruz now criticizes Bush for spending too much money on domestic programs, in 2004 he pooh-poohed worries that Bush's opportunity conservatism flew in the face of a commitment to small government. "[S]ome fiscal conservatives have criticized President Bush because government spending has continued to grow over the past four years," he wrote. "But those concerns are often overstated."
Cruz on Bush's No Child Left Behind
"Some critics have objected to the increased federal money going to education," Cruz wrote, "but the bill also requires testing of every child in third and eighth grades and requires schools to provide parents with detailed report cards of the school's performance. . . . The focus is on accountability and results."
On Bush's Immigration Policy
In Thank You, President Bush, Cruz hailed the president for describing immigrants as "Americans by choice," a term Bush prominently employed when he announced his proposal for a new temporary worker program that never became law after Bush's conservative critics decried it as amnesty.
Which points to something important about the Texas Senator. Although he's viewed as an uncompromising ideologue, he's really an opportunist. That's not to say Cruz isn't conservative. He is and always has been. But his conservatism is malleable. Early in his career, he was an establishment conservative and cast his lot squarely with Bush. But after Cruz experienced his own flameout in Bush World when he didn't get the plum assignment he was hoping for in D.C. and eventually went back to Texas. After Bush's presidency cratered, Cruz recast himself as a Tea Partier.
How did Ryan become speaker? Ted and the Freedom Caucus. How establishment is that?
Don't look behind the curtain..
Cruz was a pro Bushie working in the first administration while having his eye on a plum job he wanted. When he didn't get it, he went back to Texas and reinvented himself as a Tea Partier.
Wow. Horrifying. Meanwhile trump was with some married broad.
Law Student/Lawyer/Politician, isn’t that a resume some here detest? We need one more lawyer who has never had a real job, made a payroll, or created wealth. I’m wiling to bet his wife never even changed a diaper or watched the kid for more than a night or two. Oh I forgot about golden girl Heidi, a real Wall Street gem. You guys are being sold a mouthpiece for the oligarchy But heck if he sounds like Limbaugh, Levin or Glenn Beck, sign me up. Sheeple!
Trump, ‘’some married broad’’, her husband, & God were the only ones involved. Strictly private sector. No taxpayers involved.
Cruz was working IN the federal government or for the state of Texas. That involves the taxpayers, respectively. Kinda like BJ Clinton & Monica Lewinsky in the WH involved the taxpayers.
I agree, good men learn as it looks like Cruz did about how the sausage is made in DC
I praise a man who can grow and change when facts and reality are presented, it show they really do have the ability to lead and discern with good judgment.
That goes for any man who can grow and change over time, not just Cruz....if you get my drift.
Let me guess, you're one of those holier than thou types, who answers fact and documentation about Cruz with a low blow, ad hominem attack.
This article is trying to turn a positive into a negwlative.
Reagan was a democrat. He learned from it.
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