Dave Weigel, “Ted Cruz: Filibustering the Continuing Resolution and Shutting Down the Government Will Be Great for Republicans“:
The Heritage Foundation, still making amends for its old advocacy of a health care mandate, played host to Sen. Ted Cruz [Tuesday] for a talk about the “defund Obamacare” movement. It was the latest in a run of conservative media appearances for Cruz; anyone who’d heard what he told Glenn Beck or Fox & Friends got a preview of what he’d tell conservative bloggers…
“The Obama White House operates on the assumption Republicans will surrender on every major issue,” said Cruz. What he needed were 63 days of Republican activists putting the fear into the party if it didn’t defund Obamacare, and great communicators shifting the blame for a shutdown from Republicans to Obama. “If we got to this fight, they ought to be on television every hour of the day, asking: Why is President Obama shutting down your government, because he’s so committed to forcing Obamacare on you?”
To make that point, Cruz argued that the 1995 government shutdown really didn’t hurt the GOP in the long run. They won “years of balanced budgets,” and in the 1996 election, they held Congress. “The sort of cocktail chatter wisdom that, oh, the shutdown was a disaster for Republicans, is not borne out by the data.”…
Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post, reminds us that “Why, yes, Ted Cruz is a demagogue“:
How, if you are Ted Cruz, do you win the Republican nomination for president? You follow the same path that you used to win an upset nomination for the Senate. Cruz can’t really go to the right; there are essentially no issue differences that he can open up between himself and the bulk of the Republican field. Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, to name but a few, will match Cruz and each other step-by-step as they compete for who is the real conservative in the race.
No, it’s not going to be substance. Instead, Cruz will use the tried-and-true strategy of calling the rest of the party weaklings and wimps. And so [Monday] he blasted Republicans for refusing to sign on to the insane plan to shut down the government until Barack Obama and the Democrats surrender and eliminate the Affordable Care Act.
Insane? Well, as a tactic to actually get anything done, sure….
As a way to separate himself from the pack at the expense of his fellow Republicans, however, Cruz’s tactics are hardly insane. They’re irresponsible, but if Cruz doesn’t have the willingness to demagogue, then he’s just a brand new Republican Senator with nothing to show for his first six months in office, and no plans to add anything substantive to his record before his already-begun presidential run. So expect plenty more of this in the months to come. After all, it may be hurtful for the nation and destructive for his party, but it’s a lot easier than actually doing real (conservative) policy work.
The obvious template for Cruz here is Newt Gingrich, shutting down the federal government in 1995. That didn’t work out so well for the country, or even for his fellow Republicans, but it did cement Newt’s lifelong prosperity as one of the lead spokes-grifters on the Wingnut Welfare Wurlitzer. Money for nothing, and the chicks media are free!…
But I’m getting the impression that Cruz is so impressed with his new “gravitas” that he’s fallen for his own hype (traditionally the professional grifter’s greatest pitfall), and now sees himself following in the footsteps of quite a different role model. Hey, if a brand-new Senator from an unimportant Midwestern state can rocket to the White House and a Nobel Peace Prize in just four years, why not a sterling fellow like Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz?
ranchandsyrup
He’s just unskewing history. That’ll work out great. Needs moar Reagan, though.
BGinCHI
Please proceed, stupidfuckinggrifterjackass.
NickT
It’s going to be fun to observe the Republican alligators slithering along the sandbar watching each other maliciously from their empty obsidian eyes as the primary approaches. If inverted Dog is kind, we might even get to watch Cruz and Perry taking chunks out of each other’s scaly asses with empty-headed fervor and screams of “I is the only True Conservative in this here room!”
Another Bot Splainer
We need to see that long form Birth Certificate Teddy.
The Moar You Know
It may not have hurt Republicans much – as I recall the only casualty was Bob Dole’s presidential r…oh, bad example.
Well, it didn’t hurt Gingrich much, he was only forced out of the Speaker’s chair and then…oh, damn, another bad example.
Well, it didn’t hurt their party that much. In the long term. I guess.
mdblanche
Tom Coburn would like to remind his colleagues that they are a bunch of morans.
BGinCHI
Has Priebus (Latin for “multiple personalities yet still dull”) cancelled all the GOP debates yet?
It’s their only hope.
WereBear
If it works for Ted Cruz, then it’s working!
Baud
It didn’t hurt the Republicans much in 1995 because they caved.
kindness
Ted Cruz – Hillary’s best hope.
@Another Bot Splainer: You mean the one from Canada?
? Martin
I wouldn’t assume that. Cruz knows this is a non-starter. I’m certain he knows full well this is going nowhere, but it’ll play well with the base and get lots of media attention (as is happening because we’re talking about it). At this rate he’ll emerge as the GOP frontrunner for 2016.
This is nothing like Newt. Newt actually shut down the federal government. Cruz is just trolling his base. Ok, maybe it is like Newt with his lunar colonies and shit, but he never paid a price for any of that moonbattery – it just made him a bold visionary or some bullshit.
Amir Khalid
There’s a part of the story I seem to have missed. Exactly what, aside from being full of himself, leads this Ted Cruz fellow to fancy his chances of becoming President?
Eric U.
never lose sight of the con. It may have happened before Bush II, but that was when it became obvious to me that the republicans had lost sight of what they were doing and started believing their own propaganda. Bush I still attempted to run a competent government. Bush II, it was all about the grift
TG Chicago
Hey! Since when is Illinois unimportant?!?
Granted, nearly everything of import in Illinois resides in a single county, but still!
FlipYrWhig
@Amir Khalid:
1. No one can get to the right of him on anything.
2. He is an unbearably arrogant asshole who’s positive he’s smarter and better than you for all possible values of “you.” Also, a Princeton alum, but I repeat myself.
WereBear
This will cheer you up!
An adorable sleeping kitten.
It’s one of my favorite pictures, that’s all.
TG Chicago
Also, I’m a total sucker for the Newsmax headlines. Usually I just get a chuckle from the headline, but today I actually clicked through to hear what Lindsay Graham thinks is the problem with Benghazi. Here’s an actual quote from Graham:
“This is not a scandal.”
Well, glad we cleared that up!
Okay, that’s out of context — he goes on to say it’s a “national security failure”, etc etc. And, hey — it was a failure! But, as Graham says himself, that doesn’t make it a scandal.
That said, Graham still is complaining about how there was no connection to the video… which is a point that was conceded well before the election. And was never scandalous to begin with.
The latest talking point seems to be that we haven’t caught the people who did the attack, so OMG! The fact that it took 8-9 years and a new presidential administration to catch ObL doesn’t seem to bother him. And I’m sure he’s also shocked that we haven’t caught the people who hung US citizens from a bridge in Fallujah in 2004.
GxB
@BGinCHI:
Very Nice [polite golf clap]. My own pet name for him is “Rinse ‘n’ Repeat BS.”
JPL
Does Orville have a new forever home?
Now back to the topic at hand, does Ted still think Hagel is a traitor?
? Martin
@Amir Khalid:
A lot of US politics is little more than a momentum play. The top staffers go to who they think is the likely winner. The likely winner is who will be the best funded. The best funded will likely be who is delivering key policies to key players, and who has the most buzz. This is pretty much how Hillary’s 2008 campaign started, and it nearly worked out for her – she had big names and big dollars and a lot of the heavy lifting needed to get the campaign really going was handled by the amount of interest the villagers will willing to give her.
Cruz, to my eye, is running a similar strategy. He gets himself in the news for stepping off the reservation in either sensible (he’s had a few moments like that) or insane reasons (more of these). It doesn’t matter so long as his name is in the headline. In time he’ll pick up this air of inevitability, as a leader, as being independent, as listening to his constituents or the base or whatever. From that he can pick up top staffers, funding, and so on. It may not work, but there’s no cost in trying. It’s not like the GOP base will punish him if he doesn’t shut down the government. But staying in the news is key for Cruz, and if you look, there’s been some story he’s led on every few weeks for the last several months. I expect that will continue.
Keith G
Why not?
Charisma. That’s why. Or more correctly, I should say the ability to evidence a charismatic charm. If ya don’t have it, ya won’t win a general election unless special circumstances intervene.
Cruz’s mannerisms do not convey a charismatic warmth – at least not yet.
Yatsuno
@kindness: Yum! Moar juicy birfer goodness! There actually is a big birfer movement building against dear Rafael. Popcorn futures never looked brighter.
Donut
Ummm… I don’t wanna talk about Ted Cruz now. I can’t let this pass.
Illinois is 20 solid blue electoral votes, year after year. That’s nine more than your home state, Anne. Chicago, Illinois is not just a major American city of nearly three fucking million people. it’s grown into a major global financial and economic center over the last twenty years, as well.
We have everything you have in the Northeast, including amazing natural beauty in my old home-base of Southern Illinois, only we pay less for it and get more personal space out of it, to boot. You myopic navel gazers out East like to think the world stops between Ohio and Nevada, but for fuck’ssake, describing Illinois that way is just pig ignorant.
Thanks, I’m done ranting now.
ranchandsyrup
Does Newtie think he’s the next Calgary Ted Cruz?
Keith G
@WereBear: Yep. That is totally awesome.
? Martin
@Keith G:
To the left, or even to the general population. But to GOP primary voters, I think he does. They really like the asshole thing.
NickT
@Donut:
If Illinois is “unimportant” how would we categorize Nebraska?
jl
@The Moar You Know: Ha, maybe he thinks two presidential elections and losing ground in the Senate to Dems in the first term is just short run stuff we can all ignore.
SIA
@WereBear: Aww! Look at that tummy! Much, much more pleasant than the vileTed Cruz.
NickT
@? Martin:
“Niceness” along with sanity, fact-based decisions and a sense of public service as a good and honorable thing are “librul” qualities and so anathema to the True Conservative.
BGinCHI
@Keith G: Feel the Cruzizma!
gogol's wife
@BGinCHI:
That’s dangerously close to “smegma.”
NickT
@BGinCHI:
Well, Rafael el Crypto-Canadianoso is no Penelope, that’s for sure.
ranchandsyrup
No surprise that Riley Cooper, of “I will fight every ni-clang here” fame has trucknutz on his vehicle. http://deadspin.com/riley-cooper-was-pissed-he-couldnt-go-backstage-at-ken-981432082
Keith G
@Donut: I am assuming that AL was using an imagined Cruz voice and not her own reflections on that most pivotal midwestern state – the state that saw to it that Brigham Young’s wife count stopped at 27.
FlipYrWhig
@? Martin: Everyone who has ever dealt with him for any length of time despises him. Even Republicans. That’s going to be a problem. Dubya Bush had “frat president” charm. I hate that shit, but a lot of people like it. Romney is charmless but looks every inch the upper-management type that belongs on top. Ted Cruz is unpleasant and unsettling to be around. Maybe he gives good red-meat speeches, but his “retail” appeal has to be zero, and you can’t win the presidency that way.
Keith G
@? Martin: True, but in a general election, he needs more than bitter old white folk.
GregB
Put the GOP on Cruz Control and watch them dive into an aircraft carrier. At some point he’s going to get the GOP long knives out for him if he keeps shitting on everyone.
I for one am enjoying Rand Pud’s feud with Chris Krispy.
More infighting please.
Baud
Maybe Cruz will get lucky and Anthony Weiner will get the Dem nod in 2016?
gogol's wife
I love this idea that Obama is forcing Obamacare on us. Whatever happened to the idea of laws passed by a majority of our democratically elected representatives? I know, stupid question.
NickT
@Baud:
One weiner and two assholes on the same stage… It has some potential.
Josie
In an interview with Jake Tapper, Cruz admitted that his father, Rafael Cruz, said recently “that God had destined his son, the new Texas senator, for greatness.” If he has been hearing that sort of crap all his life, he probably thinks he can pull it off. His recent victory in Texas more than likely solidified that idea in his head. I think he is in for a rude awakening, not for the same reasons as Perry’s, but just as unpleasant.
FlipYrWhig
@NickT: But also Cruz is a different kind of asshole. Christie is a tough-guy asshole like Tony Soprano. Bush is a prankster/fuckup asshole like Will Ferrell. Cruz is just a walking bag of arrogance with a somewhat funny voice and a somewhat funny face. There’s no cultural script for why you should like him.
ranchandsyrup
@GregB: Limbaugh is pushing hard against Christie as well. Pimping the “Christie will be the Democrat nominee in 2016” bit.
JPL
@Donut: Gosh, that was a nice rant.
NickT
@gogol’s wife:
The GOP has three possible answers for any question:
1) Obama!!!
2) Tyranny!!!
3) Obama Tyranny!!!
It’s not an impressive rotation, but sometimes you just have to go with what you got, and besides, you can’t expect conservatives to degrade their fine minds by expanding their simple and limited vocabulary.
Mike in NC
Chris, what a moron. Makes Rick Perry look like presidential material.
Gin & Tonic
@gogol’s wife: Not just passed by a majority, but fast-track appealed to SCOTUS and adjudged constitutional. I fail to understand on what basis these constitution-worshipping “conservatives” can still fight it.
gogol's wife
@FlipYrWhig:
I agree on the Will Ferrell comparison, but I continue to think that the BJ conventional wisdom about Christie is wrong. Most people do not want Tony Soprano as president. I don’t think Christie has the slightest chance of becoming president.
ETA: Isn’t it amazing how Will Ferrell captured the essence of Dubya without making the slightest effort to do an impression? Very nice work.
NickT
@FlipYrWhig:
Ted Cruz looks like a badly made-up undertaker with surreptitiously necrophiliac interests.
JPL
@FlipYrWhig: The repubs will paint Cruz as the guy who proves they don’t hate minorities. The long form of the birth certificate will disappear and folks will pretend it didn’t happen. Remember Sarah wanted to talk about Obama hanging out with terrorists but never did cuz that bad McCain wouldn’t let her.
NickT
@Gin & Tonic:
Activist judges!!!
Oh, wait….
Gin & Tonic
@Donut:
The ocean is pretty far, last I checked.
FlipYrWhig
@gogol’s wife: I don’t think he has a shot either, but I think he’s more likeable on pure personality than Ted Cruz by leaps and bounds. By parsecs. The only political figure I can think of who’s less likeable than Ted Cruz is Clarence Thomas.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
He’s Hispanic. Everyone has been saying the Republicans need to win the Hispanic vote to be competitive, and the Republicans believe that they just need some token minorities to win back the minority vote. I would think a Malaysian would understand about ethnic tokenism as a vote getting tactic.
gbear
@FlipYrWhig:
I don’t know just what it is about Cruz’s face but I think he’s one butt ugly guy. Every aspect of his face says slimeball. He kind of reminds me of the plastic surgeon in Brazil.
Roger Moore
@GxB:
I’m rather partial to what you get when you eliminate the vowels from his name: RNC PR BS.
FlipYrWhig
@JPL: Does Cruz have an immigrant story to tell like Marco Rubio does, like how it was so great they got out of totalitarian Cuba to embrace a world of plenty and free enterprise, etc.? I can’t really imagine him attempting, much less pulling off, an emotional connection on that. Not to actual Latinos — that’s never going to happen, book it — but even to Vanilla-Americans who want to be reassured that they’re not bigots by One Of The Good Ones.
Davis X. Machina
@gogol’s wife: I still wouldn’t sell him short.
Christie’s USP (unique selling proposition) is what he isn’t. He doesn’t bump up against a lot of factors that have put a ceiling on GOP presidential vote-pulling.
He’s not an overt God-botherer.
He’s not a neo-Confederate.
He’s not a business tycoon.
His America’s-real-enemies-are-her-public-employees schtick has independent-pulling power.
If the economy is still going sideways his appeal to crab-bucket America may get more traction than we may find it comfortable to admit. Huey Long didn’t preach social justice, he preached expropriate the expropriators.
If he runs, he’ll be the last man standing besides the nominee, and the 2020 candidate will be an improved version of him.
Donut
@NickT:
Corny?
@Gin & Tonic:
Touché. However, three blocks from my home is a lovely pristine beach, looking out over a huge and beautiful body of fresh water, whose level will not rise thanks to climate change, and certainly doesn’t cause massive flooding due to storm surge, a la Irene and Sandy, and who knows what storm next year.
So I think I win.
JPL
@FlipYrWhig: Cruz is already painting Rubio as a RINO and the repubs will only anoint someone to prove to the old white guys they are not racist. I really don’t think they are interested in minority votes. I hope you are right cuz if either one is the nominee, I’ll have to max out on contributions and I’d rather not.
FlipYrWhig
@gbear: This is exactly Ted Cruz to me: Will Forte as Tim Calhoun.
NickT
@FlipYrWhig:
The immigration story behind Ted Cruz’ irresistible rise is probably not one he’ll be advertising extensively. There’s room to doubt whether the Cruz parents were completely… legal in their immigrationizing.
FlipYrWhig
@Davis X. Machina: I think Scott Walker can beat Christie on almost all of those counts — plus he has less baggage (ahem).
Gin & Tonic
@Donut: How’s the surfing?
NickT
@FlipYrWhig:
Less junk in his trunk, you mean?
gbear
@Donut: You can add that your body of water isn’t saline. That gives you another point.
Roger Moore
@gbear:
FTFY.
Jewish Steel
@TG Chicago:
Guess you’ve never been to Logan County, son.
Davis X. Machina
@FlipYrWhig: Walker is the one I actually worry about. So long as the GOP thinks “Southerner” by default, they’ve capped themselves at about 200 EV. He’d take a power of beating. Hopefully, his fellow Wisconsinian Ryan also still has aspirations, and they’ll kill each other off like two scorpions in a bottle.
SatanicPanic
@BGinCHI: if he’s got that I hope someone prescribes him some penicillin.
Beeb
@NickT: Close. He looks like a younger Grandpa Munster.
Gene108
@Davis X. Machina:
As much as Limbaugh says “he is a Democrat” there is very little about Christie that is outside conventional Republican beliefs.
If he runs for Predident primary voters will realize he is one of them and can potentially win by turning NJ into a Republican state for 2016 and PA into a battleground state. There are plenty of Independents in the Phillt suburbs, who like Christie but have voted for Democrats because the Republican Party left them.
NickT
@Beeb:
That was exactly the image I had in mind, although it seems unfair to the old gentleman.
JPL
It doesn’t matter who the repubs nominate, the talk radio crowd including Limbaugh will go along with it.
NickT
@JPL:
Yes, but the primary is going to be the key here. That’s where Christie’s various indiscretions are going to be pounced upon by the even more obviously batshit crazy factions.
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
That’s quite different from how ethnic tokenism is played over here.
Hal
Three mandates on the aca. passed by Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court, Obama reelected. But hey, this law is invalid, let’s keep trying to repeal it.
TG Chicago
@Jewish Steel: I said “nearly”! ;-)
Yatsuno
@Hal: Passed by an illegitimate blah Democrat usurper and upheld by activist judges. Nope, thing’s gotta go now. Otherwise it punches a huge hole in their ideology, and we CAN’T have that now can we?
JPL
@NickT: So?
Josie
Speaking of Texas, the following was posted on FB by the Texas Democratic Party:
jl
Cruz in the Old Newt disguised as the New Newt. to be distinguished from the New New Dymaxion Newt of the recent primaries.
Jewish Steel
@TG Chicago: You did. Fair enough. I’ll call off my hordes of downstate hotdog brutes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
So he’s got a Sean Hannity Louisville Slugger ready face?
Villago Delenda Est
@NickT:
The greatest indiscretion of all was being more than civil to the blah guy in the White House.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Yeah, I was being way too snarky in my comment; I get the impression that you do it more like big city machine politics used to be run around here. In practice, I doubt that the Republican version of tokenism will play out very well because it’s all about identity rather than policy, but the Republicans are so used to being able to control their voters with identity politics that they assume they can do the same thing to everyone else.
Hoodie
Guys like Cruz will make it possible for Christie to get the nod for the GOP even though the base doesn’t love him. Consider a possible GOP field for 2016: Christie, Cruz, Paul, Santorum and Walker. Santorum, Paul and Cruz are niche candidates that represent various poles (e.g., religious nuttery, ideological insanity and general assholism) of the GOP mind, and thus will cancel each other out. That leaves Christie and Walker, with Christie coming out on top because of personality. Christie could be a formidable candidate, but Hillary could beat him with a big gender gap. Hillary does ok with men (they respect her), and she will bring a shit load of women to the polls.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Hoodie: I think you underestimate the general assholism faction of the Republican Party and it’s leader Rush Limpdick.
JPL
@Hoodie: Guys like Cruz scare me because what if………
BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: I think the machine interpretation is probably more accurate, especially in the early years. Though I’ll admit most of my studies about Malaysia focused on Economics and not politics and I’ve only paid casual attention in the past 25 years.
Hoodie
@BillinGlendaleCA: Not really. Christie can hold his own there, even if he isn’t as big an asshole as Cruz, and he would be acceptable to the Santorum crowd and the glibertarians, even though he wouldn’t be their first choice. In a sense, Christie is somewhat like Mitt except, instead of having a lot of money, he has a lot of attitude. Republicans tend to see either as virtuous.
Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t think America is ready for a Mexican president.
It doesn’t seem to be working out for Mexico either.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Hoodie: I don’t know, I think they’ll go with the true believer after two apostates.
ranchandsyrup
@Just Some Fuckhead: His ancestry is Cubano.
gene108
@Hoodie:
Except Christie has nothing to walk back that goes against Republican orthodoxy.
He’s anti-abortion.
He’s holding up gay marriage in NJ, despite the legislature passing a bill to legalize it.
He’s taken a big dump on the poor of this state by slashing services.
He’s fought with teachers unions.
He stuck it to public employee pensions.
Plus he’s picked up the endorsements of several key Democrats for his re-election bid.
I mean, what is not to love about the man?
He’s what Republicans mean, when they say it’s the messaging and not the message. Christie can deliver the shit sandwich of Republican policies in a manner that will make many folks not look too closely at what’s actually being done.
Villago Delenda Est
The “years of balanced budgets” were shitcanned the instant a Rethug was installed in the White House by five fascist traitors, the four living ones should be hanged. Oh, and how did that 1996 Presidential election work out for you, Ted? Huh? Why don’t you ask Bob Dole?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Hoodie: That was supposed to be the strategy that elected President Guiliani. What if Huckabee jumps in or some other “mainstream” candidate that can immediately command the largest bloc of evangelical voters?
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108:
He embraced “that one”, and he’s insufficiently Islamophobic.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear: I love baby Tristan! And his bunny!! So very cute.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Villago Delenda Est: I’d hang the dead one too.
Violet
@Davis X. Machina: Walker does not look Presidential. He’s go a weak chin. I don’t see how whatever got him elected in Wisconsin will work in the GOP strongholds of the south. I don’t think he can hold his own.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Violet: The impression I get from Walker is he’s Rick Perry without the Goodhair.
JPL
Anne, Does Orville have a new forever home?
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: Don’t discount him because he does have the Koch money behind him.
gene108
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Guiliania was pro-choice, I think, at some point in his career. He had several marriages and possibly affairs to help end some of those marriages.
Christie has none of those problems. He’s a straight arrow, as far as anybody knows, on the family front.
He lines up 100% with Republican policy orthodoxy. He just needs a platform to show that to the rest of the country.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Donut: You missed the snark here Donut; in the conservatard mind Chicago is unimportant, in the same way New York City or Los Angelas is.
Hungry Joe
In his terrific book “Tough Jews” Rich Cohen described the gangster and murderer Abe “Kid Twist” Reles’ effect on people: Pretty much everyone took one look at him and wanted to punch him in the face. That’s Cruz right there.
Just Some Fuckhead
@ranchandsyrup: I’m sure there’s some technical difference I’m just not sophisticated enough to understand.
Patricia Kayden
@Amir Khalid: Yes, I wonder in which planet Ted Cruz thinks he could become President of these United States. Even if won the Repub primaries, he’d never win a general election where he’d have to get a significant percentage of the non-White, non-elderly, non-Southern vote.
Delusional much?
ranchandsyrup
@Just Some Fuckhead: I suppose Cuban presidentes haven’t worked out so well for Cuba either. Yr joke still works.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
He stuck up for a Muslim appointee. He’s had public quarrels with the local teabaggers.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gene108: Except Christie has nothing to walk back that goes against Republican orthodoxy.
You mean, “beyond Hurricane Sandy AKA Hurricane Solicalizm’ that stole the 2012 election and Christie being buddies with Obama AKA the American Hilter-Stalin, Christie has nothing to walk back”
gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, he touched Obama, but if he got to campaign nationally I think folks will realize none of Obama’s “cooties” rubbed off on him.
He does have a Muslim friend, but maybe that’s the sort of minority outreach Republicans want to embrace.
There’s not a lot substantively that separates Christie from Santorum or Bachmann except Christie knows not to say crazy-for-right-wing-consumption-only crap in public.
The problem Christie will have in 2016 is Republican economic policies are so right-wing trying to sell America on the Ryan Budget v. 2.0 probably won’t go over very well. Though in Christie’s defense, he did cut taxes for millionaires while shafting the rest of NJ, with regards to education and other public services and the people here love him anyway, so anything’s possible I guess.
gene108
@Roger Moore:
What public quarels with teabaggers? Other than the one time he stuck up for his Muslim friend, he’s not done anything to really piss of the rabid right in NJ.
Even touching Obama didn’t hurt, because the right-wingers in Ocean County, who were under water after Sandy and Irene realized Christie shouldn’t say no to Federal help to get them back on their feet.
I think right-wingers in the South, i.e. Hurricane Country – NC, SC, GA, FL, MS, AL, LA, TX – and in the Midwest, i.e. Tornado Country, realize the importance of federal disaster relief, even if they won’t admit it publicly.
Patricia Kayden
@ranchandsyrup: I had to actually find that video. Such a redneck.
Well, at least he apologized.
fuckwit
They’re terrorists; nihilists. That’s what they have become. There is no more clear explanation. They are bent upon destruction, and apparently purely for the sake of destruction.
They are deliberately attempting to destroy the government of the United States of America. There’s a word for that too: treason.
The seeds have been there a long time, and this didn’t happen overnight, they worked themselves up into it, much as a faction of the SDS worked themselves up over time to become the Weathermen.
At some time soon, most sane people will become weary of the fear of hyperbole, and simply state the obvious, but horrifying fact: the Rethug party has become terrorists.
JPL
@gene108: The same right-wingers do not understand that foreign aid can actually help us in the long term. If we don’t build good will abroad, someone else will. (i’m thinking about Rand Paul at this moment in time)
Patricia Kayden
@ranchandsyrup: That’s great because I’m actually afraid that if Christie ran he could win. I could imagine some disaffected Dems voting for him along with Independents.
ranchandsyrup
@Patricia Kayden: me too. Of course of it is rand Paul he’ll peel off some brogressives.
JPL
I’m going out on a limb here but I think that Bob McDonnell won’t run for President.
Yatsuno
I love how a thread about Cruz being an idiot dissolved into Governour Harkkonen’s chances at the nom. I still say no way in Hades does it happen.
Just Some Fuckhead
@JPL:
Certainly his wife isn’t running. Turns out she’s corrupt, according to him.
JPL
@Yatsuno: We are balloon juicers.
also, too.. I want to know if Orville found a forever home…
Chris
@Hoodie:
But yeah, I find this pretty plausible. Basically a repeat of 2012, with Christie playing the role of Romney. The big money, party establishment and media will all gravitate to Christie, and it’s doubtful that the base will be able to find a “pure” Republican to rally around any more than they were in 2012 and 2008.
feebog
I don’t know, I keep saying on these type of Republican Presidential threads, it won’t be Rubio, because he is a wimp, or it won’t be Christie because he is a fat, belligerent jerk. But its going to be one of these assholes right? So at this point, the only guy I think is really pissing up a rope is Rand Paul. Yeah, he will get the same 5 to 10% nutbags his crazy father got, but that is not going to drive him to the nomination. Other than that, well, its a long, long road to some little town in New Mexico. And yes, Ted Cruz does have the kind of face you would just love to punch.
Chris
@Hoodie:
I think the attitude matters more. In fact, I thought that was Mitt’s biggest weakness in appealing to Republican voters – he came off as an asshole, but an awkward, standoffish, stiff-assed one rather than an in-your-face bully. I never got the sense that he was reaching that primal, visceral thing in his voter base’s gut that wants to see a boot stamping on a liberal face forever while its conservative wearer laughs uproariously. Christie, on the other hand, embodies that trope.
The Other Chuck
Newt was Speaker. Cruz is a junior senator in a body in which he’s a minority party. Yes, he can filibuster, which is an action taken on rare occasions called “weekdays”.
But by all means, please proceed, Senator.
CaseyL
I like tealeaf reading as much as the next person, but the 2016 campaign is too far off, and too much can happen between now and then.
Cruz is pushing oh so hard to shut down the govt over Obamacare. How is he gaming this one, since nobody thinks it would be anything but a disaster for the GOP if they actually did so?
Christie has to lose weight. I’m sorry, but the man can’t walk 50 yards without gasping; no way is he up to a 2-year long campaign, plus governing New Jersey. I suspect his surgery isn’t doing the trick because we’re not seeing a lot of press about how svelte he’s getting.
Walker worries me. The plutos love him, so he’ll have more money than God. The failed recall is a propaganda plus for him: he “stood up to” demographic groups Republican voters loathe, and won. He’s the very model of what the GOP wants for America.
Thoughtful David
@Roger Moore: My favorite is “obvious anagram, Reince Priebus”.
Yatsuno
@CaseyL: I only have two hopes regarding Walker: no one outside of Wisconsin has really heard from him and he doesn’t give the fundigelicals starbursts. In fact, he’s never really said anything public about his faith AFAIK. That might just be a problem in the South. Plus Wisconsin. Too Yankee.
Eric
Lets assume hillary runs. It will take a politicia of cosiderable skill to keep the rabid base ges with anti hillary sentiment while not pissing off independent women. Cruz and christie are not that guy. The gop primary participants will force each other to stay stupid shit and will eliminate any real cross over appeal christie may have. Plus he is a dick.
Jeffro
@Donut: Just how far Southern in Southern Illinois? Harrisburg? Or dare I ask…Vienna? (‘Cuz that’s where my mom’s folks are from and still reside)
Suffern ACE
@Villago Delenda Est: again, they controlled the government for 10 more years after that. And we still haven’t recovered from it.
Newt Gingrich, who cares?
The republicans are going to use ACA to make this coming election a bloodbath for Dems. I think they can. Why do you think they can’t? Our superior messaging machine?