https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/692122557730914304
This totally cracks me up. All Trump has to do is say “Cruz is a jerk and no one like him and no one will work with him and he sucks as a person” and pretty much everyone nods and silently agrees with him. Serves the shithead right, and I bet the Senate Republicans he’s screwed over are loving it.
Here he is doing just that today:
Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ted Cruz, his chief opponent in the race for the GOP nomination, is a “liar” who “looks like a jerk.”
“Ted Cruz lies. He is a liar,” Trump said in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “That’s why nobody likes him. That’s why his Senate people won’t endorse him. That’s why he stands on the middle of the Senate floor and can’t make a deal with anybody.”
“He looks like a jerk,” Trump added. “He’s standing all by himself.”
It’s just awesome.
Patricia Kayden
It’s amazing how personal Trump’s insults are. He really knows how to go for the jugular.
I hope when he goes after Secretary Clinton in the general election, he comes off as sexist and a bully and it backfires big time with the electorate.
Felonius Monk
Ted Cruz everyone’s worst
roommatenightmare.gogiggs
Stopped clock, etc…
ruemara
Just to be an asshole, I’m going OT. Going to Vegas for a conference in March. Balloon Juice meetup and fisticuffs sesh?
chopper
fuck you, trump, for making me agree with you.
slag
When a bloviating buffoon like Trump is winning the popularity contest, you know you’re in trouble.
Peale
I guess Texas didn’t have a problem with him. I don’t remember him as a dark horse political outsider. He already had a state office. Says a lot.
cbear
The funniest part of Trump’s interview were his comments about Glenn Beck–“Every time I see him on television he’s crying. He’s a mess.”
I lmao’d.
Good times.
Anya
Trump calling someone a liar is rich but Cruz deserves all the insults. He’s so pathetic he sent out a donation letter about how his “friend” Donald is being mean to him.
Peale
@slag: oddly, both are still net popular with their voters and cruz still edges trump in that regard by a few percentage points. I just hope Hillary and Bernie can remain that popular with the Dems.
Lord Baldrick
Jeb? (via RipeToRot superpac) has new commercial out featuring Terri Schiavo. Say good bye, Jeb:/
debbie
@cbear:
He also called him fat, which upset Beck a lot.
the Conster
I hate that at least once a week or so, I agree with Donald Trump and want to egg him on, then die a little inside when I realize that his chances of being president are increasing with every passing week. Dear FSM, let Donald do the wet work on the rest of the field, then strike him dead. kthnxbai
piratedan
@ruemara: depends on when in March, I will be there the weekend of the 11th catching the Pac 12 hoops tourney, so if the planets align, etc etc etc
JoyfulA
Cruz’s ex-roommate has been talking like that about him for years, and fellow law school students have thoroughly dissed him.
jl
@Patricia Kayden: It will be interesting to see what happens to Trump in the general election if he makes it. Outside the GOP base, how will people react to almost content-free name calling and BS that Trump peddles. Seems like the GOP establishment and hangers-on (fundy) ceiling on tolerance for Trump increases as he seems more like a possible winner, not sure if the same is happening in general voting population.
One of my theories of Trump is that he really has no ideology at all, just ambition to get into politics at the highest classiest winner level. Couldn’t do it as a Democrat because they were insufficiently deferential to his vast genius. But he is smart enough to have realized that any competent grifter and fantasy artist can go far in the GOP.
Will be interesting to see where he goes if he gets to the general. Will he declare that he has had his ‘best top people’ look into immigration and say that it was not as big a problem as he thought? Because obviously, his threats to get serious scared off all the rapists and murderers the Mexican government ordered over the border? Hey, maybe he will have figured out ‘what is going on’ with the Muslims?
So little content in what Trump’s policies, plus complete shamelessness would allow him to do that. Plus his statements in interviews that detailed plans with content are BS filler for losers like pundits and reporters. What really counts is trust that he will do the right thing, ability to make great deals and his genius.
I have no clue whether that theory of Trump is true, but I think it could be.
Karen
@Peale: Gohmert comes from Texas. Perry comes from Texas. That says everything.
JustRuss
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that there won’t be an outbreak of pearl-clutching in our liberal media over Trump’s use of the L-word. Now imagine if Hil or Bernie said that.
And Craig Mazin wins the internets.
jl
@cbear: Don’t follow Beck closely, but I think he does use a Beck meltdown as a cute type of argument. But that is just going off of watching youtubes of Beck meltdowns that have hit the news over the years..
Punchy
@debbie: I just saw a very recent pic of Beck. He HAS gotten huge. Back on the bottle, perhaps? Or just too many morning cheeseburgers?
Thoroughly Pizzled
Trump may be skimping on some of the typical campaign expenditures, but he’s done his homework on opposition research.
cckids
Does anyone else, listening to Trump’s insults, have flashbacks to junior high ? “He’s a jerk, he/she’s just stupid, he’s fat . . . ”
Immature douchecastle.
jl
@Thoroughly Pizzled: Opposition research on the GOP presidential contestants this year can consist just of listening to what they say and watching the news.
Baud
LGM had a long post today about the legal basis for Cruz birtherism.
Just Some Fuckhead
If there was any justice in this world, the other Republican candidates would catch Cruz backstage at the debate and give him a massive underwear-over-the-shoulders wedgie.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
This will not matter. Politics is not a Sunday social.
And the Clintons know how to fight back and fight dirty.
Randy P
What mystifies me is that Trump is also a complete arrogant jerk. I find myself kind of curious to know just what constitutes Cruz’ level of jerkiness, which is apparently an order of magnitude beyond any jerkiness every seen in our universe. I know the story from Harvard Law about not wanting to study with those from “lesser Ivies”. OK, pretty arrogant. But that doesn’t seem sufficient to me.
Just how bad do you have to be to, over and over again in environments full of arrogant entitled assholes, stand out in arrogance, entitledness and assholery? This is the party of Limbaugh for FGM’s sake! How do you get worse than that?
Karen
Trump is the schoolyard bully with the money and the cool card. Everyone is scared to death of him and wants him to like them and wants to be him. I guarantee he’ll be using the N word and will be calling Hillary the C word as soon as he’s in the general. He is an expert at turning people against other people. Not only could he shoot someone and it would not lose him any voters, he can tell those voters to shoot someone who protests at a Trump rally. They already beat them up pretty badly, shooting them is a short hop from that.
I am terrified of a Trump presidency.
Mike in NC
@Lord Baldrick: JEBzzz fate was sealed when they trotted out the ad with Bar (wearing a hideous purple dress with polka dots) to beg voters to rally behind her low energy man-child.
Randy P
@Randy P: That would be FSM. Aargh. Edit button gone, can’t fix.
Felonius Monk
@Baud: BTW, I trust that the Baud birth certificate is all in order. As your supporters, we don’t want any birtherism suprises.
Baud
@Felonius Monk:
Leaders aren’t born; they are forged.
debbie
@Punchy:
No, it’s some unnamed autoimmune thing. It’s responsible for his vocal “chord” issues and he’s tried a few wacko things.
jl
@Baud: We are talking pot metal, I assume.
Trentrunner
Twice at Trump’s press conference just now, two reporters asked him about his extramarital affairs. He didn’t deny them.
So tell me again how he can bring up Hillary’s HUSBAND’s fucking around and not expect his own to be an issue?
Germy
I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project ….
– Woody Guthrie
Germy
Beach Haven ain’t my home!
I just cain’t pay this rent!
My money’s down the drain!
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven looks like heaven
Where no black ones come to roam!
No, no, no! Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain’t my home!
– Woody Guthrie
jl
@Trentrunner: Because Trump is winner and he is classy, and his die-hard fans think that way. Ties in nicely with the fundy endorsement I heard about on the news today, since they think that way too.
boatboy_srq
@Randy P: so tell us about those lesser lvies, then… ;-)
boatboy_srq
@Trentrunner: IOKIYAR.
boatboy_srq
Secular grifter drinks unlikable FundiEvangelist grifter’s milkshake. Film at 11.
More popcorn, please.
catbirdman
@Lord Baldrick: Jeb who?
Tim C.
@catbirdman: But…. but…. Brinks trucks? I was promised my eyes would pop! RtR said so!
Heliopause
Maybe now is the time to say that the 2012 Iowa polling at this stage of the race was reasonably close to the final outcome, with the exception that there was a bit of a last minute surge of Santorum, so to speak. 2008 polling was pretty close as well. So unless evangelicals break strongly for someone at the last minute you should expect Trump first, Cruz second, Rubio third.
On the Dem side the polling in ’08 was pretty close as well, with the exception that Obama got a disproportionate number of the late deciders. So if I had to guess I’d say that Sanders will get more late deciders and win, but don’t hold me to that.
Chris
@the Conster:
My thinking is basically this: sooner or later, someone in the Republican Party is going to end up in the White House again. (Call it voter fatigue, throw in a few campaigning gaffes by whoever the Democrat is or bad luck in the news). It’s unlikely that whoever that is will be any saner than the current batch – the crazy is baked into the entire voter base. I’m resigned to that.
So, really, taking it for granted that that’s going to happen someday, why wouldn’t it be Trump? If it’s not him, it’ll be someone just as bad. In the meantime, he’s tearing to shreds Republican candidates who richly deserve it and best of all, he’s frequently doing it with the truth.
jl
@Heliopause:
” So if I had to guess I’d say that Sanders will get more late deciders and win, but don’t hold me to that. ”
I think Clinton really helped herself in the town hall forum yesterday, so that could be a wildcard.
But I heard Sanders got an unexpected lift in some polling after the forum, so maybe the cheezy media attempts to yell Big Government and Tax Hikes, and Unfair to Super Rich at Sanders backfired.
I think results for Democrats in Iowa are unpredictable, except, probably will be close.
Chris
@jl:
Oh, I absolutely agree there.
Of course, the GOP is a party that holds “greed is good” as a basic principle and thinks people like Donald Trump, simply by virtue of their wealth, have proven themselves to be greatly virtuous and wise and just generally so awesome they should run the country. (He’s not the first person to say “I’m a wealthy businessman so I should be president,” just the most successful one in this batch). So it’s a case where the ideology is basically pre-tailored for people like Trump.
Schlemazel
@catbirdman:
Thats funny because thats exactly what Bar called him in that commercial.
“please vote for . . . ah . . . er . . . oh, I don’t know, I just call him that other one.”
“I’m Jib Bush and I approv . . aw hell, can you believe we have pissed away $50 mill on this shit? Is there another Brinks truck backing up?”
jl
@Chris:
” why wouldn’t it be Trump? ”
I think Trump’s problem is that he is such a vicious clown that 40 plus percent of the general voting population will not even consider voting for him. And, he hasn’t helped himself with that segment of the population lately. (edit: though that number is what I remember from summer polling, I’d like to know, with some trepidation, what it is now)
Maybe he can try to reinvent himself for the general, but I don’t think general election voters, even low info types, are as gullible as many in the GOP primaries. And, using industrial strength air horns and sirens instead of dog whistle may leave too much of an impact for reinvention to be feasible, especially outside the GOP primary, where so many of the base seem to be dolts.
Woodrowfan
@Heliopause:
OK, that made me snicker.
dogwood
@Heliopause:
I don’t follow polling closely, but when it comes to Iowa, I would trust Ann Selzer. Most of the polling in ’08 essentially had it as a three way tie. She had Obama up by 7 and took shit for it. He actually won by 8 if I remember correctly.
Chris
@boatboy_srq:
“Know this: the American people will find it refreshing to finally get a Republican candidate who isn’t a moralistic, sexually repressed, crusading hypocrite who cruises airport men’s rooms late at night!”
– Denny Crane, Boston Legal
Woodrowfan
@Chris: a terrorist attack or a economic disaster in late October would do it I think. gad.
Schlemazel
@Chris:
Why? Because there is still a chance that the change can come without blood shed. A couple of thrashings at the polls might just generate enough self doubt to cause the GOP to reevaluate the scorched earth mentality that is driving it and step back from the abyss. If that happens FAUX news will get the word to turn the crazy down to 7, the wealthy funders of wingnut radio will back off and let those shows starve to death as they would have 10-12 years ago without them. If all that can happen the return to sanity can be relativity pain free. If the crazy stays turned up to 11 (and high because it always has to go higher) then I don’t think things end well or even peacefully.
dogwood
@Chris:
Outside of gun and abortion zealots, Republicans have no ideology. They are motivated by greed, hatred, resentment, and racism.
jl
@dogwood: Good point. Maybe the real reason Romney was not popular with the GOP and their base voters was that he was not mean and vicious enough, at least on a personal and policy level. As a hedge fund manager, he surely was more than mean enough, but looking at it that way was surely too subtle for the reliable votes for GOP candidates.
Chris
@Schlemazel:
I… just don’t see the sanity returning. Should, say, Trump be the candidate in this election and lose, they’ll either say that he lost because he wasn’t a real conservative (a variation of what they said with McCain and Romney; the party establishment will definitely try to sell that), or they’ll say he lost because the RINOs in the party stabbed him in the back (which to be fair, they very well might). Either way, they’ll be back again in four years asking the entire candidate field to give them more crazy. The movement excels at rationalizing every one of their failures with Argumentum Ad NoTrueScotsmanum, and I don’t see that changing. Like I said – at this point, the basic problem is the voters.
jl
As for Trump, I read on front page of TPM blog today that Trump is threatening to boycott next Fox news GOP debate because Kelly will one of the moderators.
That is an example of the kind of clownish BS that helps Trump in the GOP primaries but will hurt him in the general election.
jl
@Chris: I hate to think you are right, but I think you are right. Probably, the country will have to settle for hoping that it can stave off the resentful white bigot rump of the GOP and GOPer independents as they die off, and as, slowly, fewer and fewer of their children buy their parents’ BS. (Edit: I agree with people that it is a mistake to hope for a generational transformation to happen quickly, it will be a slow frustrating process.)
It will be a long grueling struggle, but if things go well, it will be worse grueling losing twilight struggle for them.
jl
@efgoldman: And he is a two faced hypocrite and liar about his own stalwart real conservative credentials. He has egged on his dupes in Congress, not followed through himself when costs or risks are high, and then blamed others when his promised glorious victories do not materialize.
He is a toxic narcissistic clown. Good thing he is very similar to Joe McCarthy in a number of ways, including potential for self-destruction.
Keith G
@Randy P:
Trump is a bombastic jerk, while Cruz is a whiny one. The US of A has a long tradition of accepting jerks as kindred spirits as long as they come in the right form. Donald can inhabit the right form…and that worries me just a bit.
As bad I I believe him to be, I do not think that he is as pathetic as the cool kids have asserted. I think it might be very risky to write Trump off or underestimate him in any way.
sacrablue
Trump dropped out of Fox debate?
Anoniminous
@sacrablue:
That’s the word from the Hill, WaPo, and other exciting Infotainment Medium outlets.
Sad_Dem
@Trentrunner:
Because women love Trump, but Bill is a rapist, and on to the next irrefutable truth if the previous one gets played out.
jl
@sacrablue: I read that he is threatening too. Because THAT UNFAIR WOMAN will be moderating again.
The country’s hope is that what makes Trump very popular with the GOP voting base in the primaries will destroy him in the general.
One wildcard is that his hard core support is goofballs who don’t have the capacity to understand the importance of showing up for primary or a caucus, where there will not be immediate fun, self-gratification, and positive feedback (like at a monster truck rally) to vote. But as his leads in the polls get ever larger, that hope to bring Trump down is fading.
Schlemazel
@Chris:
then I’d suggest you stock up on ammo because it will get very ugly.
jl
@Keith G: And he can be a jolly patronizing self-confident and gracious jerk too. Many voters like that flavor of jerk. Shades of W there, and I think Trump can slide into that mode when he needs to.
Davebo
@Peale: His only elected office is the senate seat he holds now.
Mandalay
@Trentrunner:
It’s pretty obvious that that is EXACTLY what Trump wants – he keeps inviting reporters to investigate his past. He will then call Bill Clinton a rapist, and an abuser of women, and accuse Hillary Clinton of having enabled a sexual predator for years. And if it comes down to a pissing contest, I strongly suspect that Bill Clinton’s sleazy past is a lot worse than Donald Trump’s sleazy past.
Trump wants to go after Hillary Clinton’s “women” credentials, and drag them, and her, through the dirt.
BruceFromOhio
It’s just like a yard full of dog coils. Who owns these beasts? Watch your step!
different-church-lady
I’ve got an inkling of a theory that both the Dem’ and GOP primaries are going to hinge on whether people who aren’t actually members of either party come out to vote.
jl
OK, some evidence for my grand theory of Trump.
I admit it is dodgy evidence, since a guy who says he will say anything to get elected, will say anything to get elected. QED. But, maybe slightly better than nothing.
Maybe his pitch in the general will be “Hey, I had to say whatever I had to say in order to get through the GOP primaries. Those people are crazy.”
Donald Trump reveals he will fight as Batman, but rule like Bruce
kiroradio.com/rss/podcast.php?s=1019
jl
@jl:
:Link messed up. Try this one:
Donald Trump reveals he will fight as Batman, but rule like Bruce
audio.kiroradio.com/seattle/kiro/2016/01/c_daverosscommentary012616_9999218.mp3
OK, it works. Have to sit through a savings and loan commercial, though.
Jeffro
@Randy P: You know, if you watch his Comedy Central roast, you can see why people who get to know him a little don’t hate him. He can roll with a joke at his expense…sometimes…as long as he’s still a) a billionaire and b) the center of attention.
And there is a slight difference between Cruz’s being a constant know-it-all and Trump’s “we’re gonna get the experts in here and solve problem X”. Trump doesn’t pretend he has the answer to everything, and he’s really not wedded (metaphorically speaking) to anything.
(Not making excuses, just giving reasons for the difference in support!)
Jeffro
What blows me away is just how badly Cruz miscalculated (and to be honest, I made just about the same miscalculation): that Trump would somehow blow himself up and Cruz would be the ‘anger’ candidate most acceptable to the GOP establishment, or that should it even come to Trump vs Cruz, the establishment would side with Cruz.
Well, well, well.
The establishment is clearly starting to settle – looks like Christie will be swirling down the drain come NH, and probably Jeb too – and Cruz is fading. Not quickly enough for my taste (I still think he will openly try to rouse his followers in some very scary ways over the next few months) but he’s clearly lost by going up against Trump.
boatboy_srq
@Keith G: Winner versus Whiner. For more than a few Teahadi circles that’s a deciding factor.
I begin to understand why Cruella deShrill endorsed him.
Jeffro
@Karen: I’m terrified too, not just because of the possibility of a Trump presidency but because when he pivots to the general, he is going to be such sweetness and light it’ll be amazing. And all those low-info voters out there will eat it up.
PaulW
Dear former roomie Mikhael S:
I know I was a jerk in college. Also, I snored and talked in my sleep, which you dutifully informed me back in the day. I just want to apologize and hope I was never as 99 percent a jackass as Ted Cruz was.
Go Gators.
Applejinx
@Mandalay: This. Trump is nothing if not manipulative. He wants to get really nasty, but he’s shrewd enough to pick especially damaging things to say, rather than just bang on about old rightwing radio tropes. I picture him throwing out names, scandalous events.
Sort of like what happened to David Cameron. In those circles, you can do an initiation ceremony where you put your dick in the mouth of a dead pig, but nobody’s supposed to ever mention it in public. It’s the secret inner circle stuff, and in a way it’s proving yourself to that inner circle.
Nobody EVER wanted to prove themselves in the inner circles of Washington as much as the Clintons, and Trump has always been powerful and rich enough to be privy to stuff. You’re just not supposed to TELL about it.
I’m pretty sure no dead pigs were involved though :)
Chris
@Schlemazel:
I have said before that I can very well see the country heading to a Civil War or Great Depression level crisis. Not predicting anything specific, only that with half the country as rabidly hostile and out-of-touch with reality as it is, as solidly implanted in the political system as it is, and none of that likely to change in the foreseeable future, I don’t see how the system doesn’t eventually break, for lack of a more technical word.
Mike G
@Peale:
It’s Texas politics. Being an asshole is practically a requirement.
Mandalay
@Applejinx:
Well yes and no. It seems highly likely that Cameron did shove his dick in the mouth of a dead pig, but while that was an embarrassing story, it has done no lasting harm to Cameron.
OTOH, there are credible claims that Bill Clinton has been a rapist. Less credible than the Cameron tale, but not implausible, and the accusations are far more serious.
Trump would gladly give air time to those who claim to be victims, especially Juanita Broaddrick. If that shit show gained traction it could be immensely damaging to Clinton’s campaign, which insists that women should be believed when they claim they have been raped.
Paul in KY
@Mandalay: I’m pretty sure it isn’t. Bill just boffed some women who threw themselves at him. Donald has probably done worse than that.
Paul in KY
@Mandalay: There are no ‘credible’ claims.