It took Ted Cruz 16 days to improve the Democrats position on the generic ballot 5 points. Imagine what he can accomplish in next 6 months
— Steve Lombardo (@Steve_Lombardo) October 17, 2013
This was Daniel Larison, one of the last not-completely-insane conservatives, last week:
… It would have been different if Cruz’s gamble had been over a minor issue that drew little attention, but the purpose of the gamble all along seems to have been to turn Cruz into a national figure and link his name to some of the most important issues available. It succeeded in making him better known, but in every other respect it has backfired badly. More important, Cruz didn’t just misread the political landscape and support a strategy that had zero chance of success, but he did so in a way that maximized intra-party divisions, burned bridges with most of his colleagues, and distinguished himself as a self-seeking bomb-thrower who ended up helping to blow up his party’s own standing. Granted, Cruz didn’t do this all by himself, and there are many others that contributed to the mess the GOP finds itself in today, but he very much wanted to be identified as the leader of the effort, and now he will pay for it…
Larison, last night:
… One of the stranger aspects of Cruz’s rhetoric throughout the last few weeks has been his insistence that Washington must “listen to the American people,” when it could not have been clearer that those advocating the shutdown/defunding strategy were doing their best to ignore what the public had to say. Indeed, for some of Cruz’s defenders the fact that his effort was extremely unpopular meant that it was noble rather than indefensibly foolish. He followed this up today with the bizarre claim that “the American people over the last few months have risen up in overwhelming numbers,” which is true only in the sense that an overwhelming majority of the people disapproves of what Cruz and his allies have been doing…
… Cruz is capable of recognizing when he has reached a dead end, but he is indifferent to the damage done to anyone but himself. Anyone who wants to follow a leader like that should be prepared to be ill-treated and misled from start to finish.
But then, as was once said about a Hollywood honcho, Ted Cruz is a man who has no idea what coffee tastes like without the flavor of an underling’s spit…
JGabriel
The 27% of the 27%:
WaPo:
You know what this means, right?
The Crazification Factor has gone fractal!
pharniel
I think you mean recursive but yeah.
RaflW
Larison seems to forget that takers and non-whites (which are mostly the same, amirite?!) are not ‘the American people’ so Cruz is, in his own dehumanizing self, internally correct about them’s Americans rising up (out of their hoverounds, that is).
aimai
Do you think that Ted Cruz really knows, like understands = knows, that a definitive majority of American voters disapproved of the shut down and want Obamacare fixed not ended? I think these guys live in a world where appearances are reality, and belong to a religion in which “gods will be done” serves as an all purpose potential miracle that makes polls and factual information always seem rather illusory and temporary. The TP’ers themselves said stuff like this all the time–their strong belief that if they just get the messaging right “the people” will come around is just one side of a very strong belief that god can make this happen so even if polls are bad today they might miraculously turn around tomorrow.
Also: they have a very strong belief that only some people matter–that’s Mitt’s 47 percent of the country that he “doesn’t have to worry about.” So a person like that can always hear what he wants to hear and only what he wants to hear. Every bad poll can be distinguished from the real, accurate, future poll of the right people.
Omnes Omnibus
@JGabriel: It is in the original Crazification post. Isn’t the idea that any population has a crazy factor of 27%? It follows that the 27% has its 27% and so on until you reach Louis Gohmert’s crazy cousin Wally.
aimai
@RaflW: Oh, you beat me to it and much more neatly put.
BGinCHI
Come on. He’s grifting.
Who wants to bet he won’t serve his whole term in the Senate?
JGabriel
@pharniel:
Nope, I meant fractal:
Recursive works too, it just didn’t capture the “same from near as far” quality that I was going for.
...now I try to be amused
Ted Cruz’s political career arc strikes me as part Newt Gingrich and part Sarah Palin.
But those people don’t count as the “American people”, don’tcha know.
SFAW
Even though Larison is not-insane, why does he think Crazy Cubano Cruz, “el Chupacabra” (OK, there’s only so much you can do with “C”) will “pay for it”? He’s in Texas, the source of W, Rick “Ah’m Dummer’n W” Perry, Louie Gohmert, and a host of others. Yes, I realize there’s a semi-popular meme that Texas is turning Blue, but it’s not like Cruz had a close race in ’12.
About the only thing that would derail him in ’18 would be the voters finding out that he’s not really Cubano, but Messcan, and he’s a sleeper agent para la Reconquista. And even then …
Rob in CT
I’m gonna stick up for Larison and say that calling him “not completely insane” is unfair. He’s absolutely worth reading on a consistent basis. [though I agree, the idea that Cruz will pay a price strikes me as foolishly optimistic of him]
RaflW
@aimai: There’s a lot of talk of epistemic closure and how that impacts perceptions. I think for a lot of tea partiers, they live such physically closed lives, too.
The only brown folk, gays, lower-class women, etc that intersect with them are in service jobs where they can’t really say “STFU, asshole, you are clueless.”
They and their white, suburban, carefully racially and economically sorted selves are just totally unaware. When we say that racism impoverishes the hearts and minds of racists, this is literally it: they see and hear no difference, so none must really exist other than that which is ‘rammed down their throats’ (oh, always with the ramming and throats – what is up with that obsessional worry??)
Redshirt
@aimai: That’s the political question of our day: Of the Republics, which are true believers, and which are playing the rubes? I think it’s one of the other, and the first group is larger than the latter.
srv
Big Biz Stands With Boehner
MomSense
@JGabriel:
Maybe we should name this the Cruzification Factor.
SFAW
@RaflW:
Well, to be fair, I think Rushbo talks a lot more about “anal poisoning” than he does about “ramming throats.” Although I also seem to remember him saying something about “his brown froggy body a-quiver at my loins” re: his wee native compendium.
Amir Khalid
I know it was a close call with the shutdown/debt ceiling thing, but I think Ted Cruz’s capacity for getting people to despise him has a good side effect: it limits the damage he can do in the future. Fewer Republicans will be so keen to follow him off a cliff the next time around.
Redshirt
@srv: Oh, that is sweet. A Big Biz old school Republican lobbyist referring to the Tea Party as the “Taliban”. Love it. LOVE IT! More! More! More!
Violet
@srv: Boehner has loser stink. Not as bad as Cruz, but still bad. so they want to align themselves with losers?
KS in MA
@BGinCHI: Exactly. He’s only pretending he believes what he’s saying.
His resemblance to Joe “I have here in my hand a list …” McCarthy grows more obvious every day. I hope he’ll get a comparable comeuppance, but it may not be anytime soon.
Botsplainer
@srv:
If you look at the GOP breakdown on the House vote, assume rough thirds – one of them generally well disposed to business and in either safe districts or in districts with zero tea billy threat, another third in districts where there is a tea billy threat and higher R+ values, and the final third being bugfuck crazy.
andy
“Anyone who wants to follow a leader like that should be prepared to be ill-treated and misled from start to finish.”
Libertarianism 101- you don’t know you’re getting ahead unless you can hear the moans of the people you’re stomping on.
Pongo
@BGinCHI: Agree–he’s just Sarah Palin minus the bump-it and plus a vastly better (and sadly wasted) education.
aimai
@Violet: Sure–no one wants a Speaker who gets things done. Boehner does a pretty good job of simply fucking things up for Obama and herding the cats in the refusenik coalition. From the point of view of big business, other than the shutdown and the potential default, thats as good as it gets in a Speaker for a party that is actually in the minority. He’s a spoiler and he does that well. You don’t need a genius or a guy with personality and power for that. In fact, he’s a wholly owned subsidiary of big business not a player in his own right.
David in NY
Thank you. Never heard that one. Hope to use it soon.
boatboy_srq
@RaflW: We’re looking at this from the wrong end of the instrument.
Cruz’s behavior may be wildly unpopular with “The American People,” but they seem well suited to the GOTea in Texas. At the end of the day, those are the only American People Cruz cares about, talks to or (possibly) knows exist. So while he’s a laughingstock for most of the nation, and an embarrassment for most of the GOTea in the other 49, as far as the Lone Star State goes, Cruz is Da Man.
raven
@BGinCHI: Have you seen Tired Old Queen at the Movies? Really great stuff!
Seanly
I posted something about the cluelessness about Republicans in the Emily thread
Just saying that the American people are with you doesn’t make it true.
They are very tightly wrapped in their own bubble and don’t know it.
C.V. Danes
Wouldn’t it be better for all of us, then, if we let him keep going?
JGabriel
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, it’s implicit, but this was the first confirmation of it occurring in populations recursively that we’ve seen “in the wild” — so far as I know.
MattF
I think Cruz is a puzzle– but so what? Dominos don’t fall just-so unless they are set up just-so– in Cruz’s world he’s just the right person at just the right time in just the right place saying and doing just the right things. But all those dominos were not set up and ready to fall because of anything Cruz has done. He’s still the Very Junior Senator from Texas.
different-church-lady
Cruz, of course, was referring to the American people, not this strange mongrel hoard [sic] we are forced to allow to be born and live on our soil and occasionally vote but we’re working on that last part.
JGabriel
@Amir Khalid:
I’m not so sure. I think Cruz’s plan is to split the GOP so he can win the Presidency as a third party candidate with a minority of vote, not unlike a certain mustachioed German fuhrer we all know.
(Yep, I went there. I have no problem Godwinning Rafael Cruz.)
Poopyman
It must be very strange to be Raphael Cruz. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile….
WereBear
@SFAW: dude! A bunch of images. DO NOT WANT
Tokyokie
The loser stench Cruz emits will be interpreted as the sweet smell of success by Tea Party morons. (And now that I think about the film reference I made, I think there’s a lot of J.J. Hunsecker in Rafael Cruz.) I think he’s got a good chance of winning the Iowa caucuses and becoming a viable threat to whatever dolt (Perry? Santorum?) the GOP establishment wing decides to line up behind. Of course, I think he’s so nakedly despicable that he wouldn’t be able to muster 150 electoral votes in a general election.
fuckwit
Please proceed to keep fucking that chicken.
Lee
@Tokyokie: My money is on Santorum.
Trollhattan
@aimai:
I think what Ted Cruz “knows” is that anybody who disagrees with him is simply an unworthy, lesser person and he’s here to straighten them out (while holding his nose). This is not to say he tolerates them, but he can’t (yet) just send them off to poor houses.
Let me quickly add that I’m among those who find Ted Cruz to be a lot less intelligent than many, and expecially Ted Cruz, think. Hey may be trainable in the way a circus animal is trainable, but his actual smarts definitely have their limits.
Please proceed, Republicans.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ted Cruz has little Teds upon his back to bite ‘im,
And little Teds have lesser Teds, and so ad infinitum.
Redshirt
I think Cruz is just next level Palin. Smarter, more politically savvy, better background, but essentially the same: A grifter looking to get paid.
Bubblegum Tate
Did you know that Booker’s win proves that the Tea Party is ascendent?
Winning by 10.3 points may as well be losing by a gazillion points.
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: It’s Teds all the way down?
SFAW
@WereBear:
Dude! The first quote was a genuine Rushbo; the last will need to be deciphered by some of the old farts here, ’cause it precedes Rushbo by 20-or-so years.
Suffern ACE
I don’t know. The guy is about to relaunch the hair tonic industry. If you were in a suburban high school in the 1980s and remember all those guys who suddenly got Ollie North haircuts – you know what power conservatie hair can have on trends. I look for pomade to go flying off the shelves in places where it hasn’t had much of a share since 1964.
feebog
@MattF:
I think he is completely transparent. This whole thing was about Ted Cruz pulling ahead of the field for the 2016 Republican nomination. And to the extent that he gained name recognition and the adoration of the Red State zombies he is ahead of the pack. Most of the far right think he is a hero, and they will gladly follow him over the cliff at this point. It isn’t going to matter in the end, look what happened in 2012, when the most boring millionaire alive got the nomination over the nutters. Cruz will flame out, just as Newt, Herm, Rick the Dick and Crazy eyes all did in 2012.
SFAW
@Bubblegum Tate:
Well, if those damn New Joisey voters would un-skew themselves, the
whiteright guy would have won.Botsplainer
@Lee:
Business doesn’t trust hyper catholicity. It’s gonna be Rubio they throw in with.
Waldo
@Poopyman: Eh. I’d say he’s now the Joe the Plumber of Capitol Hill. Minus any useful skill.
Botsplainer
Query – what wingnut head explosions does a Marco Rubio-Susana Martinez ticket cause?
Belafon
@Bubblegum Tate: And yet I remember something from the Bush administration where 9.4% rounded to 10% and was therefore significant.
The Dangerman
Can you imagine the shitstorm if it was KNOWN Obama was born in Canada? Yet Cruz gets a pass. Really quite stunning the depths of their depravity.
piratedan
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/lesson-learned-here-s-what-conservatives-are-taking-away-from-the-shutdown
The Other Chuck
@Bubblegum Tate:
You do know who that’s great news for, right?
raven
@Botsplainer:
I like to go back to San Juan
I know a boat you can get on. . .
BGinCHI
@raven: Ooh, thanks! Looks great.
Ash Can
@aimai:
That’s a good question. Given his ability to perform well at tough schools, one would be tempted to say yes, of course he does. However, in light of the things his father has said, it’s apparent that he was brought up in an environment rife with delusion. He could very well lack the ability to see beyond his own imaginary world.
dmsilev
@Bubblegum Tate: In an off-off year election, on a Wednesday in October. Low, low turnout, which usually benefits Republicans.
And the teabagger still lost by ten points.
SFAW
@Botsplainer:
None – they’d chalk it up to it being a big “Fuck You!” to liberals. (“See? We’re less racist than the Demon-rats! Eat that, libtards!”)
raven
@BGinCHI: It’s killin me, he really knows his movies!
BGinCHI
The GOP debates are going to be better than the Breaking Bad finale.
Though with less honesty and more pathological characters.
NonyNony
@dmsilev:
This is exactly what I was going to say. They compared Booker’s performance on a Wednesday special election in October to Obama’s performance on a Presidential election.
Fund knows exactly the crap he’s spewing there, of course. He has an agenda to push and so he’s pushing it. Still it’s amazing how much they feel the need to spin spin spin. Christie did everything he could to tilt that election for the GOP and they still managed to lose it by 10 points. Clearly this marks a party in ascendance in the Garden State.
boatboy_srq
@feebog: Ted Cruz is pretty transparent. SENATOR Ted Cruz (R – Uninsured/Preexisting-Condition) is the puzzle.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
oh, certainly. all the way down.
SFAW
@BGinCHI:
Fixed
Bubblegum Tate
@The Other Chuck:
John McCain, obviously, but also Ted Cruz!
BGinCHI
@SFAW: Including what will no doubt be talk radio and Fox News moderators.
schrodinger's cat
Crisis averted, time to do the happy dance!
BGinCHI
You just cannot make this shit up:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/florida-man-burned-in-halloween-cross-burning-gone-awry
Southern Beale
I’m sorry but that’s par for the course with the Tea Party. They bandy around terms like “the American people” like it’s “and” and “the.” They don’t have a fucking clue.
Three months ago my mother in law, an 80+ year old Southern Baptist who lives in rural Kentucky, told me she was sick to death of hearing the Republicans use the term “the American people.” She went on a huge rant about it, in fact. When even a little old lady in bumfuq Kentucky realized that Republican use of “the American people” is insincere, you’d think a conservative pundit would have clued in by now.
Then again, that’s their problem. For all their talk about “the American people” conservatives as a whole are completely cut off from anyone outside their ever-shrinking circle. It’s life inside the bubble all over again. When will they ever learn?
Randy P
@SFAW: Googled it. Apparently it’s Firesign Theatre. I’m the right age (they appeared at my college for instance) but am the only person in my generation never to have heard their stuff.
The Other Chuck
@Southern Beale: They should just go with a shorter term like “Der Volk”
scav
@BGinCHI: You see where FL had a naked man shot? Those sidewalks down there are scarey dangerous. Freely available too. No wonder so many down FL-ways are a little round more bends than a slinky.
Ash Can
@Bubblegum Tate: That’s a howler. Someone needs to have a word with John Fund about brown acid.
aimai
The problem that Ted Cruz is trying to solve is the Highlander problem–in the end there can only be one Republican nominee coming out of the primaries. He believes that having extremist, passionate, followers and high name recognition is the single most important thing at this stage of the game. He’s grooming and currying followers in the House as well but he clearly doesn’t think they matter much because most of his followers are also from the Red/Appalachian states that already tend towards teapartyism. If he were interested in seizing control of the state party apparatus elsewhere, in non teaparty states, he’d be a lot nicer and more conciliating to some of the other house republicans.
He probably correctly assumes that business money will return and back whoever the Republican primary winner is regardless of how much business interests hate him now. So the entire debacle was a win for him since it did raise his profile as a man of principle, which is an important ideological stamp for the group he wants to attract.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You got love the spectacle of man not even born in the United States attempting to define what an American is.
catclub
I think Cruz has a desire to imitate all the worst aspects of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy.
The question is why.
MomSense
@Botsplainer:
I think the Republican nomination belongs to Huckabee if he wants it. Also, too depends what Jeb “the smart Bush” decides to do.
I also think Jindal really wants it. Judging from his speaking voice of the last 18 months–he has gone to a vocal coach.
Trollhattan
@Randy P:
Preceeded by “At times of dexterity like this, my wee native compendium Mohameet used to pray to the divinities.”
catclub
@aimai: INstead of looking to imitate a recent junior senator who DID get the presidential nomination, he makes a big splash too early.
Also, thinking business will not turn VERY heavily against a GOP poll who says the wrong things:
Note what happened to Newt Gingrich when he started criticizing Romney too accurately for vulture capitalism. They came down on him like a ton of bricks.
Woodrowfan
@Ash Can: given that most every person that ever met him thought he was an asshole, I suspect he lacks any ability to put himself in another’s shoes, to think how someone else would react to a situation. He’s in his own bubble in several respects.
gelfling545
@dmsilev: In these off- elections it’s usually the crazies who turn out in force. (That’s why I harangue my family & friends to vote every time there’s an opportunity if they don’t want to be governed by people chosen by crazies.) That Longeran was still beaten by over 10 is amazing.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: I think Jindal has reached the ceiling as far as elected office goes.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@RaflW: They’re not always obsessed with ramming and throats. Sometimes they worry about having to’bend over’ and ‘take it.’
catclub
@MomSense: 1. He doesn’t. 2. His pardons of future murderers of police, and rapists, will not age well. 3. Business already has showed how much it hates him in 2008.
Jon Thune
Roger Moore
@C.V. Danes:
Only if he doesn’t manage to wreck the country in the process. Remember, a big part of the reason the Republicans are hurting is because their actions have hurt the public. For him to do a lot of damage to the Republican brand, he’ll have to cause a lot of pain to the rest of us. I’d rather his damage be limited to the minimum needed to drive the Republicans out of power.
Hill Dweller
In other news, the Republican controlled state government in Virginia just kicked 40,000 people off the voting rolls. The Republican candidate for Governor and current Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, is tasked with defending the decision in court.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
That only works if one of the Republican rump parties can steal enough votes from the Democrats, a highly dubious proposition. IOW, please proceed, Senator Cruz.
Davis X. Machina
Ron Fournier. But you probably guessed that.
chopper
@Lee:
Given basic probability and the amount of time in circulation, there’s probably santorum on your money as well.
different-church-lady
@Davis X. Machina: Why does he need the guts to anger “liberal backers”? They’re going to be angry whether he tries to anger them or not.
Trollhattan
Well, well, well.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/poll-grimes-has-slight-lead-over-mcconnell
? Martin
@catclub:
Maybe. But the 2012 GOP field had a very different dynamic to deal with. Each serious candidate was backed by a billionaire. Ted needs a billionaire of his own to compete, and he now had the visibility to court one – and most likely the Kochs.
The 2016 Dem field may fall into the same pattern – we just don’t know, but I think it’s pretty apparent that the 2016 GOP field will be defined by that dynamic. And if he can land the Kochs as his backers, he needs no others. In fact, he needs no others during the general, either.
Suffern ACE
@catclub: the business interests will back Scott Walker if he is reelected next year.
Jay C
Get paid, more likely.
Unfortunately (for the country), I think that far from damaging his political prospects, Sen. Cruz’s grandstanding and showboating over the shutdown/debt-limit fracas has probably boosted them. Exponentially.
First, he’s gotten his smug mug all over the news; secondly, he’s made himself into the Senator from The Tea Party (and will own that rep); third, he’s raised a ton of money from the rubes; fourth: see no. 3; and moreover, he’s in a safe seat with no discernible political downside to his extremism and posturing.
Unless, of course, he manages to tick off his backers and the GOP PTB back in Texas: but that’s a fairly unlikely prospect: Ted Cruz may be a lunatic, but he’s not crazy….
The Red Pen
@Trollhattan: She could probably beat McConnell. Bevin, however, is good-looking and well-spoken and Tea-rriffic.
If he wins the primary, then those of us who think that Cruz damaged the Tea Party had better be right…
MikeJ
@catclub:
Always count on the Republicans eventually nominating the dullest white guy they can find. They may use Newt et al to fire up the rubes, but the guy who doesn’t say as many crazy things out loud (while still supporting the craziest policies) will be the nominee. Thune is a good bet.
Anoniminous
@srv:
TeaBaggers comprise 49% of GOP primary voters nationally. (I got that figure from the American Conservative website & figure they should know.) Cole has already pointed out today they have their own funding sources. They also control, to a greater or lesser extent, state and local party organizations. They have successfully put forward their own candidates and won primaries. They are the base of the GOP; they are the political activists of the GOP.
It doesn’t matter what “the business community” wants or who they support.
Roger Moore
@scav:
I don’t see how I managed to miss that one. I subscribe to @_FloridaMan just so I don’t miss that kind of thing.
? Martin
Florida
Jay C
@Trollhattan:
While it’s certainly nice to see Sen. Yertle’s numbers taking a hit, I’d imagine that any polling data this far out from the election (and taken immediately in the wake of a tsunami-level GOP PR fiasco besides) is pretty much meaningless. McConnell still has a whole year to raise money to flood Kentucky’s media markets to demonize Ms. Grimes: if these numbers are the same a year from now, THEN I’d be amazed….
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@aimai:
I suspect Cruiz’ is indulging in wishful thinking – business people do love there money and Cruiz makes it clear their money is necessary sacrifice as far as Cruiz is concerned. Even more so if he ends up against Hillary “I’m the ’90s part two; we all get rich” Clinton. Not to mention all the GoPers now who will be looking to shove a knife in Cruiz’ back when he is vulnerable.
fuckwit
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The overbearing, fanatical zeal of the recently-converted.
aimai
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m pretty sure he’s not indulging in wistful thinking at all. If the Money Men see him win the primaries they will donate to him, just the same way lots of them donate to the dems as well, just to keep in good with a potential winner.
kindness
Linked over to Larison’s last entry. Read the comments.
What a bunch for fracking idiots they have over there.
bemused
Hilarious. $24 billion hit to the economy not funny at all but who would have thought that the GOP would finally overreach enough for most Americans to pay attention.
I feel like celebrating being at least grateful the insane asylum didn’t succeed on this but I would like to pop popcorn without scorching my pot. We hate microwave popcorn and prefer to pop popcorn on the stovetop. Do the original whirly pop pots with turn handle actually prevent popcorn burning?
Anoniminous
@Davis X. Machina:
The complete Ron Fournier:
There. Now you never have to read anything he writes over the next 2.5 years.
fuckwit
@Southern Beale: Actually, it’s completely consistent! “The American People” are white, old, christian, straight, gun-owning, property-owning, married men. Everyone else is not really American! Therefore they do speak for “the American People” as they define it.
scav
@Roger Moore: Here is all I know of it.
catclub
@Suffern ACE: Agreed. As Charlie Pierce says: “Don’t go to sleep on this guy.”
Svensker
@SFAW:
Wasn’t that brown froggy native boys in leather aprons? Regnad thinks so!
ETA: Yes, I’m old. Why do you ask?
Belafon
@Davis X. Machina: I believe a lot of people on the left are convinced Obama is not afraid of pissing them off when it comes to entitlements.
What I am genuinely interested in is how many Republican throats Obama is actually willing to go at, and I’m a pretty big Obot. Though I suspect Obama’s best use of this victory might be talking to people like Boehner about how it would be more advantageous to work with the Dems in order to weaken the Tea Party.
As for McConnell, I think Obama should carry out all of these conversations in public. I saw a KY poll that said McConnell is now behind Grimes because of the shutdown.
Joseph Nobles
I used to be in the “Ted Cruz doesn’t believe the crap he’s saying” camp. But I’m his reluctant constituent and I’m no longer sure of that assertion. In fact, “true believer” seems a better explanation for his actions.
Bob In Portland
It will be interesting. I’ll be visiting the hive around Thanksgiving. It will be interesting to see what the takeaway is from this last debacle for my sis. She’s been screeching about statists lately. She’s on Medicare, gets Social Security, worked her whole career for the government, as did her hubby. I’m going to pack my ativan and find a TV with a football on it, but I’m sure I won’t be able to avoid all the leakage from her reality.
Wyatt Derp
Cruz, like Palin before him, doesn’t actually want to win anything. He just wants millions of angry right-wingers sending him money. It’s a sweet con he intends to play for years and the only thing that can screw it up is to actually have to make governing decisions.
different-church-lady
@scav:
Do the police in Florida charge anyone who shoots someone for anything ever?
JGabriel
TPM via Trollhattan:
I wish pollsters would start polling Moderates instead of Independents. There are a lot of far right Tea Party wingnuts calling themselves Independents these days. It’s skewing the results.
scav
@bemused: Worked for us growing up, but we were dedicated to the craft and can jiggle it out of regular pots and even get some of those fireplace ones to work in a pinch. Wore the print off our popcorn bowl we did. Some are sturdier than others — our favorites were the black and red ones. But they do require attention.
different-church-lady
@Belafon:
Why should he go for their throats when they’re so busy going at each others?
fuckwit
@Bob In Portland: Mein gott, it’s projection again. What is it with the fucking projection??! It’s weird. It’s predictable. It’s a strange psychological problem, and it seems epidemic among the teabaggers.
JGabriel
? Martin:
If Cruz gets the Koch Bros. to back him, he’ll get a lot of other billionaires too. The Koch’s bring a cabal of like-minded billionaire funders with them.
.
Yatsuno
PURITY UBER ALLES!!!
jl
” no idea what coffee tastes like without the flavor of an underling’s spit ”
I didn’t know coffee tasted better that way. Another rare pleasure in life that only the powerful can enjoy. Life is so unfair.
Roger Moore
@different-church-lady:
Depends on the skin color of the shooter and victim.
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
so cute!
johnny aquitard
@Bubblegum Tate:
Only 10.3 points? Well that viewpoint is not surprising. After all, these fuckers called Bush’s half-point loss to Gore a mandate.
With Republicans it’s always a mandate when they win (and sometimes even when they don’t), which means they get to completely ignore the minority party, and when they lose it’s always by a narrow margin, which means the other side must always do most of what they want.
catclub
@Yatsuno: Both Cochran and Wicker voted to open government. Not so much the Mississippi GOP congressmen.
I was surprised the articles did not mention that vote. It would be funny if Democrats won in Mississippi by the GOP running a loon who looks like he will not bring back pork.
Thad Cochran, John Stennis, Trent Lott – these men are not known for anything except bringing cash back to Mississippi. If the teapartier made it explicit that was not happening, Mississippi voters might have some real doubts. Too bad the Scruggses are in prison – they are Democrats
and would be expected to bring back the cash.
Villago Delenda Est
@fuckwit:
That really is the problem here.
The definition of “the American People” that the teatards operate on excludes 70% of the population of the United States.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: Kitteh’s human is a great photographer, if you search vladimir punikki on the intertoobz you will find a lot of kitteh photos full of win and awesome.
Seanly
One item that explains a good bit about Cruz is that he was raised by a rabid right winger Dominionist. Here’s a longish article about Cruz that goes into a discussion of the Dominionists.
They are some crazy muthafuggas and not the people I want to be very close to the levers of power.
johnny aquitard
@catclub:
Same reason. Power.
Mike in NC
If he’s studying the Palin playbook at all, Ted Cruz will have a book of his own out just in time for Christmas, accompanied by a national bus tour to promote it. Bank on that.
fuckwit
@johnny aquitard: You might have missed my earlier comment. All of their antics and indignation makes 100% perfect sense when you realize they are ALWAYS the majority of “Real Americans”. They’re never a minority because anyone other then them is not a real citizen. In other words, if you aren’t a land-owning, white, christian, gun-owning, straight, married male, you are simply not American and your vote is illegitimate. Everything about what they are doing, why they feel victimized, why they’re so outraged, why they can ignore the voters, why they hate the government and democracy itself, and why they feel so completely justified and righteous doing it, makes perfect sense if you just meditate on that one fact.
feebog
@Anoniminous:
And yet, the Republican Party ended up with the Romneybot 2012 model as their nominee. Don’t underestimate the power of money my friend. After Newt won So. Carolina he was carpet bombed with ads from the Romney campaign in Florida, and never heard from again. I think Christie will be the guy big money backs and will be tough to beat..
Belafon
@Mike in NC: Will the parody book be called “Goin’ on a Cruz”?
aimai
@? Martin: Yes.
bemused
@scav:
I think I’ll give it a try. I have my eye on a Lee Valley 6 qt aluminum popper. We do like plenty of popcorn when we make it. So addictive.
Amir Khalid
@Mike in NC:
I think I remember that Palin “bus” “tour”: Her bus did the touring, while she got to each stop by plane. Then, a few stops into the tour, she just up and quit. That rather sounds like the kind of tour one might expect from Ted Cruz, too.
ranchandsyrup
A little post about the No true scotsman fallacy as it is getting a workout today.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
Well, the work ethic of The Palin is legendary!
Or mythical…
danielx
No. Shit. Pols are generally self-centered and egotistical, but the Cruz Missile achieves new lows for those characteristics.
Villago Delenda Est
@Seanly:
There is only one word that successfully summarizes the Dominionists.
Evil.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
This right here is reason #1 why you can’t organize a party around libertarian principles. A successful political party requires some cooperation – i.e. collectivism. When everyone pursues the angle that’s best for them personally, you get the circular firing squad you’re seeing right now. Ted can’t see beyond himself, which is true of many of his House colleagues. Fire away guys, we could use less of you around.
JPL
Cruz should face a challenger. He voted for closure and allowed the vote. If you don’t call that a surrender, I don’t know what is.
Dee Loralei
@schrodinger’s cat: that picture is just perfect! HA!
JPL
@catclub: I’m not sure where but recently I read an article which argued for earmarks. When the tea party and republicans claimed purity on bringing back pork, they no longer had reason to compromise. The common good is not enough for them.
Anoniminous
@feebog:
Oops.
I was thinking only of the 2014 House and Senate races. You’re right, the Presidential race is different.
hoodie
@feebog: They go for those kind of presidential candidates because the presidential primaries expose the fact that full-on teabagger mutants can only survive in the hothouses of gerrymandered House districts or Senate races in deep red states. The presidential primaries are run nationwide, so the Bachmanns, Cains and other species get exposed to hostile environments that eventually do them in, irrespective of money. The Romneybot is more impervious, can subsist in more environments. He’ll incur damage, but he has backup systems that protect him from total system failure, stuff like a villager rep as a “moderate,” his ability to shamelessly lie and, of course, his money. Christie will be hard to beat, but not just because of money. He’s clever, an asshole, has no trouble lying and, yes, has backers with deep pockets.
johnny aquitard
@fuckwit:
I hear it’s common among right-wing authoritarians, especially authoritarian followers.
I consider it an illness when their behavior results in harm to themselves or causes harm to the people they are projecting onto. Which has happened, again and again.
Honestly, I’d like for someone to explain how teabagger level of projection differs from, say, a paranoid delusion, or why this is not a mental illness. The teabaggers have created a whole range of ill intentions and non-existent behaviors for people who do not have those intentions or act that way, and as a result Teabaggers are convinced these people are harming or persecuting them.
Isn’t this what they have done with Obama? They created an imaginary Obama who is a communist-fascist socialist Kenyan who wants to destroy America. Clint Eastwood even set out a fucking chair for their creation and proceeded to harangue it on their behalf. They actually believe this imaginary Obama exists, and that he plots and plans and machinates to destroy them. How is that not mental illness?
Omnes Omnibus
@JGabriel:
This.
nastybrutishntall
@JGabriel: 27 is the Soylent Green of Maths.
schrodinger's cat
@Dee Loralei: Thanks!
EthylEster
@Rob in CT: Larison is SO patient. He writes post after post explaining carefully exacly how wrong the “leaders” in the GOP are. It must be exhausting and depressing. HIS kind of conservatism is dead.
Yet he is never shrill. And deletes comments he perceives as shrill. Yesterday I got dinged for referring to someone as a wingnut. DL does not call anyone names. He just brings facts and analysis. He doesn’t like Obama; he doesn’t care for contemporary Western culture. But he devotes most of his time these days pointing out how illogical/confused the GOP is. Politely.
Dolly Llama
@EthylEster: Yeah, and a whole bunch of people here hate his ass – and will hate your ass by extension for speaking well of something he wrote – over some kind of years-old something-something involving some kind of Confederate nostalgia group that he refused (and as far as I know, still refuses) to renounce. Even though I’ve never seen him write a single racist word or neo-Confederate-sympathetic post in the years that I’ve been reading him now.
Prepare yourself to be downgraded and called a neo-Confederate yourself for daring to like Larison.
Dolly Llama
@Rob in CT: Cruz will pay a price. But not in Texas.
joel hanes
@SFAW:
his brown froggy body a-quiver at my loins” re: his wee native compendium.
BILL : … and the head of a FOX !
POV : Look, the pyramid is opening !
A CARD : Which one ?
POV : The one with the ever-widening hole !
Mike Furlan
Daniel Larison is not “insane” he is just a member of The League of the South:
“The League of the South is considered by many observers to be a white supremacist and white nationalist organization.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_the_South
Why does anyone want to promote the career of this guy?
Mike Furlan
@EthylEster:
Mr. Larison will delete any comment that mentions that he is a member of The League of the South.
He self describes as a proud member of that organization.
joel hanes
@Svensker:
Wasn’t that brown froggy native boys in leather aprons?
No, he had it correct.
——-
DR DOG: He’s no fun. He fell right over!
BABE: Oh, hey, won’t somebody please help me?
BILL: Easy, easy, my lad. At times of dexterity like this, my wee native compendium Mohameet used to pray to the divinities. His little brown froggy body a-quiver at my loins, chanting a stream of ancient Egyptshine holograms …
BABE: What?
BILL: Eh-diaphragms? I used to date . . .
BABE: No, no! Hieroglyphs! That’s it! Do you remember any? Will they help? Anything at all!
BILL: Of course! Of course, It was a jackal-headed woman with her eyes akimbo, a King sitting sideways on his throne, adrip with gold, chipp-ed nose up-lifted, thusly! All engraven on a Pyramis of Massey size, with the body of a Lion, the paws that refreshes, a tale told by an idiot, and the head of a Fox!
Mike Furlan
@Dolly Llama:
You don’t have to hate him, just stop quoting him as if he was a reasonable person.
Or preface your comments with “even a member of what many consider to be a white supremacist organization think the current Republican party is nuts.”
Dolly Llama
@Mike Furlan: Hey, EthylEster. Here’s what I was talking about. Stop quoting him as a reasonable person. Thanks, Mike.
Dolly Llama
@Mike Furlan:
How many times have you tried? If it’s been a super-bunch of times, just guesstimate up or down to the nearest 10.
Mike Furlan
@Dolly Llama:
I tried once.
The comment section had 25 comments at that point. I can’t imagine that he got swamped moderating them.
SFAW
@Randy P: @Trollhattan:
Them’s were the days.
Randy: you may have been the only one never to have listened to them, but I’m probably the only one who listened to them not-stoned.
@joel hanes:
You need to get out more.
Elie
@aimai:
My read on the guy is that he is too narcissistic to really develop a winning strategy for this level of the game… When he did not have the visibility and no one knew his name much, he could get away with a lot more. Now everyone is going to check the intertubes and his insulting and condescending attitude towards his fellow Republicans has made him permanent enemies. And they will NOT forget. He’s a dead man walking (not literally, but politically). They will have him so marginalized that he will make Palin look cool and in the groove.
My guess is that they will not be kind in taking him out and that there will be plenty of blood and fecal matter in obvious display. We will see how much the “business regulars” of the Repubican party want to exert themselves again. The amount of savagery will tell us what message they want to send to the next one thinking about mimicking Cruzes approach.
TS
@Elie:
No-one can ever make Palin look cool and in the groove