Elevator pitch: Ted Cruz is found murdered and every Republican in Washington is a suspect.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 21, 2016
People just don’t like Ted Cruz! It seems that practically everyone who’s spent so much as a long weekend in his company can’t abide him. Even other Republicans…
@politicalwire Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) January 19, 2016
Whether they first met him decades ago…
Cruz College Roommate Veterans For Truth pic.twitter.com/tQJYFQsfEJ
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) January 21, 2016
…. worked with him, per the NYTimes, as he first entered the DC establishment…
… In Mr. Cruz’s time as a Supreme Court clerk, a coveted step in a legal career that he had meticulously plotted out, he showed his now familiar capacity to infuriate colleagues. He also worked hard to please his boss, delved into the nuances of constitutional law for long, grueling hours and sought to smooth over harsh feelings at clerk happy hours. But when he left, he was most remembered by his fellow clerks for his fervor for capital punishment cases, a cause that would define his legal career and help him break into politics…
During his clerkship, he presented his boss with a caricature of him and other clerks pulling a stagecoach driven by the judge. According to someone who saw the illustration, there was a graveyard behind them with headstones representing the number of people executed in their jurisdiction that year…
… Or have more recently been forced to deal with him…
The NYTimes reports, “Bob Dole Warns of ‘Cataclysmic’ Losses With Ted Cruz“:
… “I question his allegiance to the party,” Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. “I don’t know how often you’ve heard him say the word ‘Republican’ — not very often.” Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word “conservative,” Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz: “extremist.”
“I don’t know how he’s going to deal with Congress,” he said. “Nobody likes him.”…
Same reason as everyone else who knows Cruz does RT @jaketapper: Why is Dole bashing Cruz? https://t.co/RCe5oFxlfn
— Roy Edroso (@edroso) January 21, 2016
(CNN)It was no accident that two Iowa GOP icons — Chuck Grassley and Bob Dole — attacked Ted Cruz the day after Iowa’s Republican governor said a vote for the Texas senator would be bad for the lead-off caucus state.
It is part of a fascinating and once unthinkable calculation by leading establishment figures that Donald Trump is the lesser of two evils at the top of the Republican presidential pack — and defeating Cruz in Iowa is now part of this strategy…
One leading GOP strategist involved in the effort put it this way: “If Trump loses we wash our hands of him. Cruz will think we need to be more crazy and be a long-term nightmare.”…
It begins… https://t.co/011LbLOEMD pic.twitter.com/ldAdqjks0b
— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) January 19, 2016
Politico has reported that “a leading Republican pollster privately told Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team Sen. Ted Cruz would be the biggest drag on House Republicans should he win his party’s nomination”
WATCH: @LindseyGrahamSC: Choice between Trump and Cruz "like being shot or poisoned—what does it really matter?" https://t.co/Uy84oMnCiT
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 21, 2016
Welp, Trent Lott just told me he'd take Trump over Cruz if he had to choose.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) January 21, 2016
So (“everybody is saying”) the faceless bureaucrats behind the GOP establishment (such as it is) have fomented a cunning plan…
WASH POST PAGE ONE FRIDAY: Establishment warms to Trump… https://t.co/IqM1uJJz63
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) January 22, 2016
… “If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question I’d vote for Trump,” said former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has not endorsed a candidate. “As a party, we’d have a better chance of winning with him, and I think a lot of Republicans look at it that way.”…
… For one thing, many Republicans in Congress especially despise Cruz, who has a history of picking long-shot fights and blaming other Republicans when he is unsuccessful.
Beyond that personal hostility, there’s a political calculation. If Cruz is nominated, they say, he could alienate swing voters with his brand of scorched-earth conservatism. If he’s elected, they fear, Cruz would shut Republican moderates out of power.
“Between Trump and Cruz, it’s not even close,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a longtime House moderate who has not endorsed a candidate. “Cruz isn’t a good guy, and he’d be impossible as president. People don’t trust him. And regardless of what your concern is with Trump, he’s pragmatic enough to get something done. I also don’t see malice in Trump like I see with Cruz.”…
“With Trump, hey, it’s just a deal,” said Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican strategist. “The primary’s one deal, that’s done. If he were to be the nominee, the next deal’s a general [election]. You can see him saying, ‘We had to do what we had to do to win the primary, but now’s the general, and we’ve got to beat Hillary.’ You can see him pivot on a dime.
“But with Cruz, oof, you’re looking at a Republican Party that wouldn’t win the vote of a young person, a young woman or a minority for a generation,” Castellanos said….
Cruz is seen as inflexible — and inflexibly antagonistic toward most of his own party.
“Trump does not have any particular enmities down here. I don’t think anyone gets up in the morning and is irritated with him,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich said in an interview. “That’s not how it is with Cruz.”…
“They think he’s fundamentally dishonest at times in the way he operates — doing things for his own benefit and calling the Senate Republican leader a liar,” said Vin Weber, a former congressman. “That has forced some people to look past all of Trump’s issues and think about what he could offer.”
Hey, when people like Rudy Giuliani, Pete (R – IRA) King, and Newt Gingrich are calling you nasty, unelectable, and impossible to get along with… you might have a problem, Sen. Cruz.
And there are even less likely rumors roiling the horse-race tout sheets…
But think about who we're talking about here- Dole, Lott, etc. All public Jeb supporters. This is part of a plan. https://t.co/SNvoqzkhff
— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) January 21, 2016
1. Build up Trump so he defeats Cruz 2. Trump wins early primaries 3. ??? 4. Jeb is nominee. https://t.co/Es1N5AkgSd
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 21, 2016
MattF
Gail Collins notes in the NYT that Der Trump’s strong suit is ‘a talent for not being Ted Cruz’.
ETA: And yeah, it’s snowing cats and dogs in Bethesda.
Steeplejack
Duped from downstairs: somewhat gloomy picture of snow here in NoVa early this morning.
Baud
I don’t often get to agree with the GOP, but I agree with them here. I would also choose Trump over Cruz.
danielx
So the only things between Ted Cruz and the White House are his execrable personality and Original Sin.
amk
that bj doesn’t have a rafael troll isn’t proof enough?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I guess it kind of makes sense that Republicans like Dole. I have a certain reluctant affection for the old coot myself, but the idea of Chuck Grassley as an icon is just baffling to me.
The most fiendishly clever plan since Darrell Issa paid for Grey Davis to face a recall election so Ahr-nooldt could lumber into office.
Botsplainer
Ted Cruz as a candidate could result in a Barry Goldwater type electoral rout. Imagine a map where the only red you see is SC, MS, TN, KY, AL, LA, TX, WY, WV and ID (with TX, TN and KY rolling in purple until 1 am).
ruemara
I choose neither. Hey, you know what, republicans, you can choose neither. You can’t stay loyal to a party that’s insane.
Glidwrith
I, too, think Cruz is pure evil, but I have an interesting parallel in mind:
The Clintons worked hard to rise through the ranks for Bill to run for the Presidency. I’ve heard he was partially knee-capped by the elites in his own party while in office because he wasn’t old money.
Now we have Cruz, who has also done the same and the elites are moving to kneecap him, in favor of tRump.
Interesting.
Ultraviolet Thunder
That’s an exaggeration. It assumes the electorate has a collective memory. Especially in the case of young people this is demonstrably untrue.
SOMEBODY must like him. He’s been elected to the Senate. Just Washington doesn’t. Poor babies.
HinTN
@Steeplejack: Why shovel? Just stay inside…
dmsilev
So, a remake of Murder on the Orient Express then? The answer will, of course, turn out to be “all of them, Katie”.
benw
Ted Cruz is creepin’ and he’s creepin’ and he’s creepin’
But he damn near got caught ’cause his beeper kept beepin’
Steeplejack
@HinTN:
I’m with you. Hence the gloomy indoor picture.
But some of the municipalities around here require your sidewalk to be cleared within x hours of a snowfall. It’s a big issue in downtown D.C. right now, because “Wah! Two feet of snow!”
My short street is a condominium complex, so I’m pretty sure the guys in the picture are paid crew members of the groundskeeping contractor.
I’m glad you could see the picture. I can see it from my computer, from which I posted it, but the link doesn’t work on my cell phone. First time I’ve uploaded something to TinyPic. Someone here recently recommended a really convenient site for quick uploads of photos, but I can’t remember it now.
Mike J
Sadly, what a lot of Republicans want out of a leader is somebody who’s not afraid to step on a few toes and won’t waste time worrying about people’s feelings and will finally let people call black people n—–rs again. If everybody hates me, I must be right.
Frankensteinbeck
@Botsplainer:
I don’t see it. This is a much more partisan era. The GOP’s white base is going to vote against Hillary no matter what. Trump is so vastly, ridiculously less popular with minorities than any other Republican, he’s the only candidate who might significantly affect coat tails, maybe.
Still, I can see the Republican elite having no clue Trump has a minority problem, but they know that everybody they know hates Cruz.
BR
The news I saw that Bloomberg is considering a run is exactly what I have been expecting for months. I figured with Trump or Cruz on the right, Bloomberg thinks he has a chance with the right leaning independents and wavering Democrats. The problem really is that we could end up with a situation that none of them gets enough electoral college votes and then it goes to the GOP house to decide.
MomSense
@ruemara:
Moderate Republican, like peak wingnut, is a myth.
Ridnik Chrome
What I don’t get is this: Let’s say Trump actually does win the nomination. He will almost certainly lose the general election, and it probably won’t even be close. He has to be aware of that, and even if he’s not right now, I doubt he will be able to stay in denial for very long. Does he really want to be the guy who was defeated in a landslide by Hillary Clinton? I could see a situation where he wins the nomination and then tries to back out of it…
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
Looks very pretty. We don’t have much snow yet.
Amir Khalid
The Republican presidential candidates, roughly categorised:
Hmm. I think I’ve missed one.
Iowa Old Lady
@Ridnik Chrome: These are the people who thought Mitt Romney was winning well into election night in 2012. And half of them think Clinton is going to jail.
Botsplainer
@Frankensteinbeck:
Trump is a boor, for certain, but when I see photos of his face I don’t feel the urge to ram my fist into it repeatedly like I do when I see photos of Cruz.
For some reason, I react viscerally to Rafael’s squishy visage.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ridnik Chrome:
Consider all the attention and cheering crowds and being a major party’s candidate for president. That’s a drug to a narcissist. Not to mention that sufficiently arrogant people can convince themselves of any lie about what they can win.
Eric U.
the elkhound is running around like a nut in the snow. She jumps around, plops down in the snow, makes an elkhound-shaped snow angel for a while and then runs around again, rinse repeat.
Iowa Old Lady
@Botsplainer: He looks like Fred Flintstone
gogol's wife
@Botsplainer:
Ever since my husband saw that video where Trump is dubbed with an elegant British accent, he’s been more Trump-curious. It’s galling. But I’m sure I can keep him in line when Nov. comes around.
danielx
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
True, but consider where he was elected from: none other than Texas, the same state that sent Louie Gohmert (R-Insane, Padishah Emperor for Life of All Teh Crazy) to Washington. Texans have no problem with electing people who in most other states would be regarded as roaring, screaming, flaming assholes.
gogol's wife
@Eric U.:
Dogs R crazy
Frankensteinbeck
@Botsplainer:
Sure, and so do I, but we have a lot of evidence that Republicans have a completely different idea of charisma than we do. That we find him obnoxious and punchable may mean their crowds love him.
BGinCHI
@BR: Aren’t the only Dem votes Bloomberg could peel off to the left of HRC?
If she is the nominee, then Sanders voters are either going to move to her or stay home. They are damn sure not voting for Bloomberg or Trump.
Schlemazel
DAY-AM! Now I am pulling to a Crudz victory in the GOP slime pit.
danielx
@Amir Khalid:
You left out Kasich, who falls into category #3.
I admit to being continually amazed – well, sorta – at the number of Republicans who gaze in the mirror and see presidential timber. Granted that after Snowbilly Snooki, that’s setting a pretty low bar – “if there are people who would actually vote for Palin, why not me? I can get out a coherent sentence!”
Ridnik Chrome
@Iowa Old Lady: Lots of people around here were pretty worried that Romney might pull off an upset, I recollect.
What I’m trying to say here is that a Trump nomination might turn out to be a booby prize not just for the Republican Party, but for Trump himself…
Botsplainer
@Iowa Old Lady:
And remember – Rmoney himself was so convinced that he would win that he’d not even considered a concession.
There’s something about the energy of supportive crowds that really jazzes us big-brained primates and affects judgment.
Davis X. Machina
Bloomberg on the ballot means “I can cast an aspirational, vaguely liberal, anti-Trump vote without soiling myself by contact with the Democrats, whose base is, well, pretty poor. And dark. And not at all like the people I know.”
Not good for HRC or Sanders… Bloomberg won’t take any states outright, not even NJ or NY, but he has the ability to turn purple into red.
Yutsano
@Ultraviolet Thunder: He won in Texas. To win a state election in Texas these days all you need is an R after your name. Plus he still had some state support at that time. I will say the silence of Cornyn here is quite deafening. If anyone is going to have input it’s his state Senate colleague.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: Jindal was on the Xtian ticket and Walker was an employee of Koch, Inc. And you missed Kasich.
Ridnik Chrome
@Frankensteinbeck: Then it will be so much funnier when he realizes he’s losing…
Chris
I’m kind of astonished at how quickly, after all these months of increasingly frantic searches for a Not-Donald-Trump, so much of the party establishment is deciding they like Ted Cruz even less.
Mike J
@Ridnik Chrome: Republicans aren’t big on thinking, but they do as they’re told. They’ve always been allowed to let their freak flags fly during primaries, but after the convention, they will follow orders and vote for the party’s nominee. Neither Trump nor Cruz will result in a Goldwater/Mondale size blowout. At a minimum they’ll have the thirteen states of the slaveholders rebellion. Add in people who vote for the biggest asshole or for the lulz, and it could be a winning coalition.
Botsplainer
@Frankensteinbeck:
Not necessarily. F’rinstance, I have no emotional urge to cram my fist into the faces of most of the current field save for Cruz or Santorum. The rest are sorta meh. I’d be polite in a public meeting.
MattF
@Chris: I think calling McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate put Cruz beyond the pale.
ETA: And that happened rather recently.
Anoniminous
Teddy is 20 points down from Donald in national polling. After Iowa he’ll vanish into the woodwork with the other cockroaches.
Chris
@MattF:
Ain’t any prettier in Rockville. It’s a good reason to stay indoors and watch movies, though.
Amir Khalid
@danielx:
Thanks.
Corner Stone
@danielx:
Gov LePage, anyone?
Corner Stone
@Ridnik Chrome:
Trump is the birther who actually agreed to attend the WH Correspondence Dinner, and didn’t see what was coming.
marduk
Figured I’d swing by and take a victory lap before tomorrow’s beatdown on Denver.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/23/sports/football/nfl-ignores-ball-deflation-science-at-new-england-patriots-expense.html
Told ya so.
Brachiator
Someone should notify The National Review.
But again, people are conflating Beltway buzz with voter sentiment. Cruz is keeping pace with Donaldore in voter polls. And as much as his peers may hate Cruz, do you know who hates Congress even more?
From the latest Fox News poll:
This continues the crazy season of the GOP presidential primary race. Trump has these dopes so discombobulated that they fail to see the extent to which they have become prisoners of their own device.
Botsplainer
@MattF:
Out of curiosity, does Cruz have much of a Senate record with regard to Texas-specific infrastructure or regulatory issues? One thing I’ve noticed about Rand Paul and the mental midgets of Kentucky’s GOP house delegation is a big fat bunch of nothing but slavish devotion to Koch bros./Club for Growth/ALEC national concerns and checklists, along with social conservative yammering.
McConnell at least has a solid record of providing pork (at least until the teatards killed the earmark). I think he’d love to get back to that but would have to kill off the tea party while keeping his senate majority, which isn’t real likely.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Yutsano:
I know TX is aberrant but I left out any slurs against it because for all I know there are Austinites within the BTtariat.
Still, he ran a Senate campaign in a large state and won. So no matter what the pundits whine he’s not universally hated.
Ken
@Amir Khalid: I have that problem with naming the seven dwarfs.
Amir Khalid
@MattF:
I had to pick one category to put Bobby in. As you say, I could just as easily have put him in with the kooks and wowsers. Scotty’s being a Koch Bros. puppet makes him an establishment man, and he is definitely a damp squib.
Ridnik Chrome
@Mike J: They’ll have the old Confederate states, minus Virginia, Florida and maybe North Carolina. They’ll also have Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and probably West Virginia, too. Everything else they’ll have to work for, and even if they do manage to pick up Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana, that’s still nowhere near enough to win. It might not be Goldwater-McGovern territory, but it will be decisive, and absolutely nobody will be surprised…
cmorenc
@BR:
The ONLY thing a Bloomberg run can possibly accomplish is to hand the presidency to the GOP nominee with barely 40% of the vote, if that. It would be a colossal asshole-ish move of pure egotism for him to imagine himself somehow the savior rather than a destructive force. It’s unfortunate that the US electoral system is geared to perversely punish third-party runs, but unfortunately it’s true, and if ever there was an election when the risk of attempting to break out of that mold was foolishly reckless, this is it- the result will be the destruction of everything not just progressives have built since the New Deal, but the possibility even of effective moderate-centrist pragmatism Bloomberg purports to represent.
MattF
@Botsplainer: Don’t know… But, believe it or not, on policy questions Cruz is a fairly standard-issue Texas Republican. I used to read the official Texas Republican platform just for laughs, but it ain’t so funny any more.
Tommy
I knew the dude wasn’t popular. But reading all the stories the past few days it is clear there might not be a person in DC more hated. I mean they are picking Trump over him.
Tommy
@Botsplainer: I follow this shit pretty closely and I can’t think of a single thing he has done for Texas. Say what you will about the guy but he is a “True Believer.” He at his core doesn’t want government to work. Heck for the first time in 70 years we elected a Republican to our House seat. A raging tea party guy. He just sent me a letter where he bragged of getting funding for my district. We like our pork where I live :).
Woodrowfan
over two feet in Falls Church. I keep hoping a couple Hispanic guys* with shovels and/or a snow blower show up and offer to do it.
* I live in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood with lots of day-workers among my neighbors, so it’s not uncommon.
Brachiator
By the way, everyone’s favorite number pops up in the latest Fox poll:
Thus, 27 percent appears to be the Irreducible Political Idiocy Factor.
Woodrowfan
@Tommy: I thought you lived in DC???
Davis X. Machina
That’s a small price to pay for smashing the two-party duopoly, though. Especially if you’re well-heeled enough to insulate yourself from the shrapnel.
And the non-partisan, technocratic, efficient phoenix America that rises from the ashes will be glorious.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: Governor Christie would also like to remind you of his existence. Another one who squeaked by with a little help from a well-intentioned third-party nitwit.
@MattF: there’s a story that Cruz expected to lose the GOP Sen primary to… Dewhurst?… and then run for governor, the job he really wanted. Don’t know how reliable that is.
Ridnik Chrome
@cmorenc: Nobody is going to vote for Bloomberg. Have you ever watched him give a press conference? Dull is an understatement…
Botsplainer
@MattF:
Yeah, I’ve read it – usually a bunch of Bircher goldbuggery and foreign policy, robber baron economics, thinly disguised white supremacy and Dominionism overlaid with great idiocy.
Germy
Triumph the Insult Comic vs. Ted Cruz
(spoiler alert: Ted spotted him, and then turned away)
Tommy
@Woodrowfan: Not anymore. Did from 1992 until 2002. I just talk about DC a lot because I kind of miss the place. I like it here in southern Illinois or I wouldn’t live here, but much I miss abut DC.
Germy
Is it possible to be recklessly feckless? I’ve never seen that term used by villagers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ridnik Chrome: I saw him win three elections in a city larger and more representative of the country than a lot of states. I don’t think he can win the White House, and I certainly agree he’s a terrible candidate, but we have 50 state elections, not one big one. In a (still very hypothetical) three way race with Sanders and Trump or Cruz, I could see him winning a few states, and being a factor in a few more.
Tommy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am a Sanders guy to my core, but not so sure he could win the general. I think he is right on the issues across the board. I just think of the district I live in. Rural, southern Illinois. And liberal. Heck for the first time in 70 years in the last election we elected well a Republican. To say we have buyers remorse would be an understatement.
There is NO chance Sanders could win here, and this is the type of district the Democrats can’t afford to lose .
Brachiator
@BR:
I don’t see that Bloomberg stands a chance in hell of winning the election or even mounting a credible independent campaign.
Germy
Doesn’t the GOP base hate Bloomberg because he’s so fancy he tried to take away their big gulp sodas?
Botsplainer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Enough to throw the election to the House and…..
Hello, President Gohmert.
gene108
From the NYT link upstairs.
Creepy does not begin to describe hanging out with your boss and a lady, from the office across the hall, and watching porn.
Steeplejack
Wow, West Ham just scored 53 seconds into the match with Man City.
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
NYC is not going to vote for him much at all. He over stayed his welcome in
Gracie Mansionwhatever penthouse luxury apartment he stayed in, while mayor.He has O’Malley’s problem. O’Malley wore out his welcome in Baltimore and Maryland; he will lose MD to either Clinton or Sanders by a large margin.
Bloomberg would lose NYC to the Dem nominee by a large margin.
There’s no way he’d win any states.
Face
Im not sure y’all have heard, but its apparently earth-shattering news that its snowing in Jan. on the East coast.
oldgold
Even though I believe the nomination of Cruz would result in democratic landslide, I do not wish for it.
My reasons are two fold: 1] Cruz is too damn dangerous; and, 2] shit happens and he could win.
Yes, I understand Tea-Rump stands a better chance of winning and is deplorable. But, the existential threat Cruz poses to our body politic overrides that.
henqiguai
@Face (#78):
Well, 2 ft of snow in Washington, DC is kind of earth-shattering. For that part of the country.
Anne Laurie
@Germy:
Nah, that’s why New Yorkers hated him.
The GOP (very) base hates him cuz he’s a Jew who made his billions in *finance*.
Eric Cantor dreamed he could be the first American Jewish president, because he had a Southern accent and the right friends. Mike Bloomberg knows all he has is his money… his brains… and the certain knowledge that he’s a technocrat, not a Miraculous Change Leader like Obama, who could get elected despite tickling all the old prejudices.
He could be Mayor of NYC because NYC is Ankh-Morpork. 99% of America… is not.
Villago Delenda Est
@Botsplainer: Bachpfeifengesicht. I react to Rafael the same way I did the first time I saw Sean Hannity, without hearing a word come out of his mouth: I started searching my surroundings for a Louisville Slugger.
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Still, he ran a Senate campaign in a large state and won. So no matter what the pundits whine he’s not universally hated.
Maybe they were just trying to get him to leave. Figured that in DC he could annoy everyone else and as he’d be only 1% of the senate how much trouble could that cause.
Or, as I used to hear decades ago how TX was so much better than every other state, bigger, bigger population, just better in every way, maybe they figured sending their biggest asshole to DC would show up everyone else. And I think many will say the second idea is at least plausible as he is a yooooge asshole.
catclub
@Mike J: having a lock on 13 states of the slave party:
I would say; not virginia, not NC, not georgia, not florida,
(not sure if florida was a state then). ark and WV would be interesting, also TN and Missouri.
Steve in the ATL
@Woodrowfan: Do you not keep a dossier on each poster? I find it’s quite helpful.
Gian
@Corner Stone:
to be fair Bin Laden didn’t see it coming either
brantl
@Ultraviolet Thunder: He got elected in Texas, where batshit crazy is run-of-the-mill.