Posted on 11/18/2014 12:55:50 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Former Sen. Bob Bennett says even though Republicans are set to take over Congress come January, don't expect Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to set the agenda.
Bennett, speaking at a conference in Washington, says Sen. Mitch McConnell, who will be majority leader in the next Congress, has done a masterful job of "isolating" Ted Cruz.
"There is no cannier politician in Washington than Mitch McConnell," said Bennett. "Yes, Ted Cruz is an unsettling factor within the Republican conference. My sense of things is Mitch has very carefully, very methodically, very much under the radar isolated Ted Cruz. He's kind of sealed him off like a body puts a sac around some foreign matter it would prefer to expel but, if it can't, it can at least cut it off."
Bennett says McConnell's work has diluted the power of the Tea Party Caucus in the Senate.
"When the Tea Party Caucus was formed it was going to be so powerful. We heard all about it in Utah when Mike Lee was elected," said Bennett, who was ousted by Lee in 2010. "Lee said 'I'm going to have all these buddies and we're going to take over.' By the time McConnell was finished, the Tea Party Caucus was Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Jim DeMint, and DeMint left."
Bennett says at this point the power of the Tea Party in the next Congress will be more mythical than reality.
"Rand Paul didn't join and Marco Rubio didn't join. Cruz is going to look around and find that there are not going to be very many people with him."
Here's the video courtesy of C-SPAN.
Rand, Marco and Mitch had better be satisfied with each other's company, because if Cruz keeps going in the direction he'll have the great majority of voters with him.
I think it would be a hoot if Sen. Ted Cruz was elected Speaker of the House. :-)
The folks in the UK have reached the breaking point due to amnesty EU style flooding the UK with immigrants who cheapen the labor pool and hurt local people.
They are fed up the fakery of the “Conservative Party” and the “Labour Party” and are voting for UKIP.
The GOPE is just as much the enemy of conservatives as the Democrats. The Republicans reinforce this daily.
And McConnell is sitting there going “ehr, vas ist das nuts?” just like in the movie.
CC
OMG - I’d be glued to the wailing and gnashing of gope-STAB teeth and rending of garments 24/7!
Apparently, you enjoy being stabbed in the back by "friends". I prefer to have my enemies out front where I can see them, and fight back. So yes, it would have made more sense to have the D's in control still.
Cruz will use a mike to constantly expose their weaknesses and lack of spine.
eye roll
Remind me again of the difference between the Dem position and the GOP position on amnesty when both positions result in it.
Are you saying R flavored amnesty is better than D flavored amnesty? Because thats what your comment indicates.
Yeah, all Cruz has on his side is about 200 reps in the House and non-urban America. Lonely.
This story is apparent evidence that former Senator Bennett is still living.
Cruz’s future so bright, they gotta wear shades!
he lost to whom? Mike Lee a tea partier (he’s a loser)
5.56mm
Amen.
That spark might come when in the 2016 Presidential race, the GOP apparatus once again nominates a functional amoral Democrat as the Republican "alternative" to whatever communist nightmare the Democrats put forth, and Cruz or some other charismatic limited government Christian conservative that God provides, runs Independent and at best, wins, or at worst, splits the vote so whichever Dem or Rep liberal administration takes hold, gets an embarrassing weakening plurality. Then in the midterms, watch RINOs be purged and limited government conservatives gain more ground as the Republican brand is forced to adapt.
Either that, or the hard slog to a third party.
Prairie fire, just the same. Americans are restless and want to hoist off this yoke to government that a minority of leftists has put in political power. They are smart enough to see through the charade of voting for tyranny either way in playing the game with the two major parties.
Eva -- holding the nose and voting R no matter what, when the guy wins .......
Casting the vote, owning up to what you voted against is easy. The only thing that matters, though, is owning up to what you voted FOR. The uniparty Republican "brand" is there because over the decades, that's what I was voting for when I was busy voting "against" the Democrats.
I own it. I admit it. A great line from a stupid movie -- "A good pilot is compelled to always evaluate what's happened, so he can apply what he's learned."
I held my nose for 30 years. In 2012, I evaluated what happened and am now applying what I learned: voting "against" is a fallacy, and voting for moderate Republicans always turns the Republican party left.
Now I vote for the most limited government conservative candidate that allows me to weaken leftists no matter which party they're in. Where the only choices on the ballot are leftists (as in the CA governor's race), I decline to participate and leave playing that losers' game to the losers who fall for the charade.
This way, I can always OWN what I've voted for and to hell with what I voted "against."
YEE HAW!
Well said, Johnny.
For sure, Enigma! Always vote Republican because it's bound to be better than the Democrats. Look how well the same strategy of fear worked for the Conservative party in England.
Here's the truth, EA -- voting for amoral big government tyranny via Republicans or Democrats is ALWAYS going to lead to tyranny. It's physics.
Time for a different strategy before we end up like England, where the "conservative" party eventually moderated itself into functional leftism.
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