A few minutes ago I heard Politico's Glenn Thrush say on MSNBC that his publication is running a piece on Senate Republicans' ferocious disdain for one of their own, the eminently disdainable Ted Cruz. It seems that one GOP senator let loose to Politico a squall of Cruz-describing expletives that could mortify even a Chicago mayor. Well now that's a must-read, I thought, which I proceeded to do.
And these quotes, from four separate GOP senators, are what I encountered:
I love the guy. And he’s got the tenacity to stand for something and not back down. That means he’s my kind of guy.
and ...
I think he’s got unlimited potential.
and ...
I think he’s going to be a superstar. You’re already starting to see some of that. He’s just smart as a whip.
and ...
Obviously, when you shake things up a little bit, that gets people’s attention. But I give him credit for doing that.
John McCain is quoted as saying, "All I can say is that I think the appropriate way to treat Sen. Hagel is to be as tough as you want to be, but don’t be disrespectful or malign his character." And that's as "tough" as the piece got.
Another (unnamed) Senate Republican "lamented" (Politico's word) that "new arrival[s] ... don’t get to know the Senate or the other senators; they just start talking. And that takes away from [Cruz’s] ability to be an influential legislator," and yet another "reported that fellow Republicans were already getting 'annoyed' by Cruz’s antics."
It's not uncommon for things to get lost in translation, but in Politico's case, it would seem they merely got buried.
So, GOP senators can dog-cuss a war hero GOP senator, but that war hero GOP senator cannot criticize a draft dodging GOP screw-up president.
Got it!
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | February 15, 2013 at 02:18 PM
I don't know if Ted Cruz is a new rising star in the republican party with "mainstream appeal" or just another overrated hack like Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan before him. It's as if the media is desperate to portray one of them as the next "savior" who could win a general election but if he is the next republican superstar, then his appeal may very well stay confined to the GOP. Not that it would stop him from continuing to win elections and hold up important legislative business all in the name of scoring cheap political points and childish grandstanding. Got to take full and complete advantage of that tyranny of the minority after all.
Posted by: AnneJ | February 15, 2013 at 03:19 PM
What were GOP figures saying about Joe McCarthy at about the same time in his political career, I wonder?
So tiresome, this GOP.
Posted by: Turgidson | February 15, 2013 at 03:58 PM
That would be the key thing Anne J. The belief that winning primaries with the support of a demented and profoundly ignorant minority of your party entitles you to the unconditional support of the rest of them. But they seem to think it does. Cruz, even more so than Rubio, strikes me as a sociopath. One that believes that making everything a battle, inside his party and out, and winning every possible battle, equals winning a war. I think he imagines he is in The Hunger Games.
Posted by: Peter G | February 16, 2013 at 11:14 AM
Peter G
If you are correct then I find that pretty interesting considering the fact he's never put on a uniform and fought in a real war, yet feels entitled to question the patriotism of someone who did and still has the shrapnel in his body to prove it. Ted Cruz was so offensive, even John McCain felt the need to intervene. Now that's bad considering how nasty and ill-tempered he is these days.
Posted by: AnneJ | February 16, 2013 at 12:38 PM