Yes. Ted Cruz is certainly no outsider. He is Washington all the way.
It is strange he didn’t realize how “inside baseball” it is and expected people to get it.
If he was seen going into a hotel and being videotaped - every Tuesday and Thursday - he was acting like another Anthony Weiner. Typical brazen Washington behavior. I do believe the video exists
I’ve heard that term a lot in my youth 50 years ago in the 50s....I have never thought of it solely associated with “political muckraking or dirty tricks.”
I look at it as political insiders thinking they’ve done or invented something new when all they do is really leech off the sweat of others.