GOP creates Ted Cruz, now thinks he’s a jerk

[wvit1001]

The Tea Party's favorite Senator is what happens when you care more about activist love than legislating
 
 
 
Here’s Senator Ted Cruz, Ted Cruzing it up, taking practically sole credit for killing gun background checks and trashing all his colleagues:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geHPipl6mt8&feature=player_embedded
 
 
The New York Times charitably says that “Friday’s speech was not the first time Mr. Cruz may have acted counter to some of the Senate’s norms,” before bringing up Cruz’s decidedly McCarthyite take on Chuck Hagel.
 
Cruz is at the FreedomWorks Texas Summit, and the news here is that he calls most of his colleagues “squishes” and gives a (quite self-aggrandizing) account of off-the-record Senate Republican caucus luncheons, which apparently involved a lot of people yelling at Cruz and Rand Paul and the other guy who also promised to filibuster the entire gun deal from start to finish. In this version of events, the three filibustering amigos were responsible for the failure of the entire proposal. As Dave Weigel points out, that’s not really how it happened. The bill failed — and was probably doomed to begin with — because a lot more than three senators opposed it, and the Cruz/Paul filibuster threat was worse politics for the party than allowing debate to proceed and then watching red-state Democrats cave. Which is what actually happened.
 
This unbecoming display of narcissism and lack of team spirit led Washington Post blogger and former uncompensated Mitt Romney flack Jennifer Rubin to call Cruz a jerk. Which he undoubtedly is!
 
But Cruz is explicitly and purely self-serving. Cruz wants to be the guy who never compromises because compromises are incredibly unpopular and exploiting activist conservative disdain for the party and for Washington is a can’t-fail maneuver.
 
Just look at this political science survey of FreedomWorks Tea Party activists: They’re ultra-conservative Republicans who hate the Republican Party. They also value ideological purity over pragmatism, to the point where winning victories matters less to them than loudly saying the right thing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[keno]

So, did the GOP create him, or the Taxed Enough Already groups?
 
They aren't the same thing.

[wvit1001]

I don't know who created him nor do I care.  I just think he's funny.

[wmdn_bs]

I think the TEA agger created him and the GOP embraced him.

[lakitss]

It is irrelevant liberal bullshit. Typical leftwing tactics; suck the dick of your savior while trying to smear any opposition.

STFU.

[sweetwater5s9]

The New York Times charitably says that “Friday’s speech was not the first time Mr. Cruz may have acted counter to some of the Senate’s norms,” before bringing up Cruz’s decidedly McCarthyite take on Chuck Hagel.
 
 
LOL, who cares what the NYT political hacks say?   

[wmdn_bs]

The New York Times charitably says that “Friday’s speech was not the first time Mr. Cruz may have acted counter to some of the Senate’s norms,” before bringing up Cruz’s decidedly McCarthyite take on Chuck Hagel.


LOL, who cares what the NYT political hacks say?   

I guess you do. You responded.

[keno]

I don't know who created him nor do I care.  I just think he's funny.
 
 
You brought it up, and you made the claim.

[wvit1001]

Yeah I brought it up.  I think he's funny.  This is an entertainment board isn't it?

[sweetwater5s9]

We still have a jerk in the WH who has the most corrupt administration since Nixon.