Posted on 10/20/2015 6:19:50 AM PDT by Isara
“I am not aware of George W. Bush criticizing Barack Obama as intensely as he has criticized his Republican Senator in Texas.”
I continue to think Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is on trajectory to be the next President of the United States in a nomination fight against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and George W. Bush may have just handed the whole race to Cruz.
Multiple people have told the Politico that at a fundraiser in Colorado for Jeb Bush, President George W. Bush lit into Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Cruz could not have paid for such a sterling moment for his campaign.
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that more Republicans, upwards of 40%, say they would never, ever vote for Jeb Bush for President, which is more than those who say that about Donald Trump. Along comes the former President in a season of “we’ve already had two Bushes” to promote his brother by bashing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as “opportunistic” and self-interested.
The GOP is still wrestling with immigration reforms started by the Bush administration, TARP, the GM bailout, John Roberts, and more. Conservatives have grown more and more hostile toward Jeb Bush and his brother’s legacy. So it does not help George W. Bush to give a back-handed endorsement to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as the antithesis of Bush Republicanism.
What’s more, in the continuing scenario where I see Cruz vs. Rubio as the logical outcome of this, Bush also dinged Rubio, but not nearly has hard as he slammed Cruz.
More troubling, I am not aware of George W. Bush criticizing Barack Obama as intensely as he has criticized his Republican Senator in Texas.
What President Bush is doing is signaling that he thinks Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the major threat to the Republican Establishment and the candidate the Establishment fears the most. In a election year where the outsiders are beating the insiders, this will only help Cruz. In the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll — the same one showing strong anti-Jeb sentiment — Cruz had made no gains over last month. I expect this news will help him tremendously.
I also think this is another data point in why Jeb Bush walking away from the race would profoundly shake up the race in ways no other candidate leaving would.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) could not pay money for this kind of publicity in this kind of election year.
As an aside, it is a really damning indictment on the maturity of those in the room who showed up to help Jeb Bush that they’d run off to the press and mouth off about what a former President said behind closed doors while being completely oblivious to the fact that it would actually help Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
The Republican Party simply does not understand its voters any more.
What are you talking about? ...not fighting back.
Ted Cruz & Mike Lee are the only two every fighting back against GOPe leadership.
One of the few mistakes Ronald Reagan made was allowing the GOPe country clubbers to browbeat him into accepting George Bush #41 as his V.P. instead of Paul Laxalt, a fine conservative from NV.
By allowing the GOPe to put one of their own ilk on the ticket, we have been stuck with that Big Government loving crowd for two decades to the detriment of the country.
[Can anybody think of another candidate Cruz has directly attacked?]
TED CRUZ has character...
“Look, I cannot control insults that others will choose to hurl. What I can control is that I have not and will not reciprocate.”
– Cruz responding to his fellow Republican critics
Well, Sen. did mention that McConnell is a liar, but that was the truth, so that shouldn’t count as defamatory.
At the same time he terrifies them all because he has clearly stated that as president he would direct his attorney general pick to fully investigate IRS targeting, Fast and Furious, Benghazi etc “wherever the path may lead” and pursue prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.
That makes democrats AND republicans nervous.
George W. , you are a big disappointment. And way out of character.
You are correct that we cannot have another leader who refuses to fight back, but you also you don’t have to participate in every fight you are invited to. Trump is doing the heavy lifting against the Bushes so that message is getting out there. Acting like a Statesman in this case while others are throwing mud is in my opinion, the correct tact to take.
If you look at Ted’s record of taking on the UniParty in Congress, fighting back will not be a problem for him when the time, and the issue, are correct.
This is a BADGE IF HONOR.
Oh, Ted would fight back if Trump wasn’t taking them out. This is what he means by the Trump campaign helping his - Trump does the bomb throwing, while Ted sits back and acts innocent. I’m just saying that Ted didn’t even fight for time in the last debate. Others jumped in - not him, he just stood there and took it. That really bothers me. He takes on Congress - only because he wants to enhance his reputation as someone who stands up to the Washington Cartel. Funny thing is - he is tied to DC by being a sitting Senator. He had no problem calling McConnell a liar, but, if he hadn’t believed him over his aides - that wouldn’t have been necessary either. He was duped.
Strawman.
The one huge, and most important difference. Bush didn’t fight back against Liberals/Democrats, Cruz is simply following RR advice and following the 11th commandment.
Specious comparisons like that make Trumpophiles look foolish.
Bush didn’t fight back against anyone - be they DEM/REP or whatever. You are the foolish one - Cruz is no RR either - he thinks he is. Reagan fought back and yes, he even fought other REPUBLICANS - unlike Ted Cruz. Let me clarify that - he talks a lot on the floor of the Senate - but, in the media - he is mum.
Cruz is taking the higher road and winning because of it. My only advise to Cruz is to respond by heaping praise on W, wherever he can find it.
Yes, Ted wasn’t as assertive in the early debates as I would have liked, but they were designed to be a “food fight” and that forum didn’t play to his strengths.
I have watched him for a while now (been to three stump speeches in NH) and I think he is getting better. I think Ted will be one of the final four and I believe he will shine in the debate venue with fewer people on the stage.
I’m just this once going to NOT follow the advice of Mark Twain concerning “arguing with a fool”....
Making a ridiculous comparison that Ted Cruz is even remotely similar to W Bush is demonstrably ludicrous on it’s face and you know it. (If not you more obtuse than you already appear)
Cruz has absolutely hammered the Dems AND the GOPe and there are scores of examples. But you know that.
Silly comments such as you make are glaringly false and obviously at odds with the facts.
Erick Erickson is a butt monkey for the Bush’s and the GOPe. He’s been so debunked since his pitiful Redstate Forum where he slandered and disinvited Trump and then left Carson out that he’s been reduced to posting recipes of what he ate for dinner on his FB page. Don’t elevate the pathetic cretin by posting his articles.
I love everybody as God loves me.
The key here is "closed-door meeting." You have to compare what he says in private with what he says in private and what he says in public with what he says in public, not remarks that were intended to be private with remarks that were uttered in public. Maybe there's some cleverness involved, Bush knowing that his remarks will eventually become public, but that applies to the reference to Obama above, just as it does to the remarks about Cruz.
But there's also this, delivered in public:
George W. Bush rips Obama on foreign policy. In rare public comments about his successor, George W. Bush slammed President Obama’s foreign policy in a speech over the weekend. Source
That didn't amount to much, but it was intended to be public as the other remarks weren't.
Just because God loves him doesn’t mean he’s not a pathetic cretin. :-)
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