CRUZ or LOSE!Posted on 01/28/2015 4:57:04 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The far-right immigrant-basher boasts of his new influence in his party, and sadly for moderates, he’s right.
Self-promoting wingnut immigrant-basher Rep. Steve King invited most of the 2016 GOP hopefuls to his “Iowa Freedom Summit” last weekend, and now the results are in: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the Steve King primary, according to Steve King.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s endorsing either of them right now, it’s just his humble view of how they did at his all-important conservative confab.
“I think Ted Cruz had the highest bar to reach, and I think he cleared that bar,” a confident King told Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel. “I don’t know how much greater than expectations it was, but he at least met and then exceeded expectations… Probably the person who helped himself the most would be Scott Walker. The bar wasn’t as high, and he gave a good speech. He connected with the audience in a good, constructive way.”
Some Republicans know they have a Steve King problem: to their credit, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush stayed away from his “Freedom Summit” last weekend. In fact, it’s the kind of event Bush was talking about when he opined late last year that to win the White House, a Republican candidate had to be “willing to lose the primary to win the general.” Translation: Don’t pander to your far-right fringe so much that you scare away swing voters later.
Of course, while that sounds uplifting, it’s literally impossible, at least the way we currently pick presidents. The loser of the GOP primary will not face off against the Democratic nominee in 2016, so as a political strategy, Bush’s wisdom falls short.
Still, the sight of 10 or so GOP hopefuls traipsing to kiss King’s ring has to disturb Republicans hoping to win the White House again. Just a decade ago, the idea of the right-wing anti-immigrant crusader as some sort of kingmaker, no pun intended, would have seemed far-fetched. It’s not just that he is on the fringe when it comes to his views on immigrants. It’s that he’s just so nasty about it, calling undocumented immigrants “deportables” and famously insisting many have “calves the size of cantaloupes” from carrying drugs across the border. (I still want to know how he got up close and personal enough to examine the cantaloupe-sized calves of immigrant men; did he squeeze them?)
Because seriously, in all the futile GOP soul-searching that went on in 2013, there was at least broad concern about the tone of the party. No, there wasn’t a lot of smart thinking; there was no realization that the reluctance of African Americans, or Latinos, or single women, or gay people has to do with the party’s increasingly right wing policies, and that those policies might have to be changed. Yet there was concern, from Reince Priebus on down, that maybe the party shouldn’t talk so horribly about people it might someday like to vote Republican. Clearly, King didn’t get that memo.
As Salon’s Jim Newell observes, King would just be another Louie Gohmert – a back bencher given to colorful, bigoted outbursts – if he didn’t hail from Iowa, whose caucuses have gained such influence as the party decides who will be the strongest candidate of social conservatives. Even the scandal-damaged, formerly moderate Chris Christie thought he had to show up and brag about how “pro-life” he is.
Mainstream reporters seemed to agree with King: Scott Walker won the weekend. But the Wisconsin governor may find that boasting about defunding Planned Parenthood in his state was a great applause line with Steve King’s friends, but will turn off moderate women in droves come November, 2016 (if he gets that far.)
Despite what Jeb Bush hopes, you really can’t lose the GOP primary and win the White House, as things stand now. But you may not be able to win both, either.
Cruz 2016
Dave Weigel is probably one of the more well informed liberals.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/08/08/the_tea_party_s_close_call_in_tennessee.html
But this is Steve King playing games with Priebus, the media and Jeb.
His staff kept a running list of some 12-16 prominent Republicans who’ve leveled personal criticisms against him. The congressman said he went over it himself the other day, just for old time’s sake.
“Their agenda has been marginalized,” a smiling King told msnbc. “Mine’s been strengthened.”
He’s still a member of journ-o-list after posing as a conservative “junior” David Brooks.
CRUZ or LOSE!But one thing for sure is that if listen to his criteria for judging a candidate and you apply the test of "Principled, Positive, Proven"" you have no choice but to rule out all the other candidates.
In fact; it wouldn't surprise me to see the "three 'P's" become the bumper sticker tag line for the 2016 campaign.
I think Weigel or someone at Salon at least admitted at best individual Tea Party candidates only lost 3 or 4 net races. GOP would not have controlled the Senate and establishment incumbents would be even more RINO.
Weigel was one of the first people who said King wouldn’t be stopped by Karl Rove if he ran.
Steve King did the right thing so he could focus on defeating Trey Gowdy’s agenda.
and for the last three months the media has already chosen Jeb Bush. right, they just want to choose the candidate that Hillary can beat. Cruz/Walker. i like the sound of that. even Walker/Cruz will work.
Sounds like King got under her liberal skin...
Cruz/Walker
Walker/Cruz
Ted will destroy Shillary in the debates.
I will be looking forward to if/when the moderator asks Hillary, how do you plan on putting the 90 Million Americans back to work?
Salon: ‘Making the NY Times look moderate’.
Cru to victory 2016!!!!
“Translation : Don’t pander to your far right fringe so much that you scare away swing voters later”.
How so? Pandering to far left extremist never stopped the Kenyan communist from winning twice did it?
This woman is not only to the left of most Americans, she is far to the left of most people in even communist China. She actually thinks do defunding Planned Parenthood will cost the GOP candidate votes in November huh? What planet is she living on?
Bkmrk
and no more audits! well except Randall,Sharpton,Pelosi & Reid.
It’s always amusing to read the liberal concern trolls worrying about the tone of the GOP. Somehow I never recall them ever being concerned about the tone of the Democratic party.
There are moderates/statists in the GOP among the elected officials, people who have grown in office. Their problem and the problem for the liberal concern trolls is that there are very few moderate GOP voters. And the GPO voters have been betrayed so many times, they’re keeping the squishes on a short leash. The libs can stand that GOP politicians are now being forced to vote according to their constituents wishes. Libs can’t have that, so they come up with these ridiculous conspiracy theories on how Boehners being run by a few nutjobs, etc. And these reporters want to be taken seriously. Ha!
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