Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

“But what about the lurkers?”

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Cruz-ifiction / Comic Relief Open Thread: Ted Cruz, Reaping What He Sowed

Comic Relief Open Thread: Ted Cruz, Reaping What He Sowed

by | 78 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

Remember the old line about “We’ve already established you’re a whore; now we’re just haggling over your fee”? Well, Ted Cruz sold himself early, while the market was hot. What with all the breaking Trump news, I never got the chance to post Politico‘s story — “Cruz profited off Trump well before endorsing him“:

It took Ted Cruz four months and three weeks of “careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience” to declare publicly that he would vote for Donald Trump.

He made the decision to profit by selling his supporter list to Trump far faster than that.

Just six weeks after he dropped out – and more than a month before Cruz would dramatically snub the nominee at the Republican National Convention – the senator quietly began renting his vast donor email file to his former rival, pocketing at least tens of thousands of dollars, and more likely hundreds of thousands, that can be used to bankroll the Texan’s own political future…

The exact details of Trump’s financial arrangement with Cruz are unclear, and loose federal record-keeping makes it impossible to verify. But an email rate sheet obtained by POLITICO shows that Cruz asks campaigns to pay more than $22,000 for the right to send a single email his list of 280,000 digital donors. He charges more than $51,000 to ping his full email file of 1.28 million supporters. Because Trump has rented Cruz’s list so often, he is almost surely receiving a negotiated discount from the list price, industry veterans say.

“You are just a send away from reaching the most engaged and generous supporters in Republican presidential primary history,” the Cruz rate sheet says. More than $20 million was raised from Cruz’s email list, it says.

Since he exited the presidential race in May, Cruz’s campaign committee has reported a total of roughly $290,000 in list rental income, Federal Election Commission records show. Trump’s campaign directly rented Cruz’s list five times in June and since early July his joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee — which gives 80 percent of its proceeds to Trump — has rented the Cruz’s list more than 25 times…

In addition to paying to rent Cruz’s list, his campaign has offered some candidates the ability to strike so-called “revenue-sharing” agreements where, unbeknownst to the donor, Cruz and the renter split the donation. The rate sheet suggests Cruz would receive 60 percent of those funds, while the renter would receive 40 percent…

Nowhere in the fine print of the Trump emails does it disclose to recipients that they ended up on the GOP nominee’s email list by previously signing up for Cruz’s list.

After campaigns end, many candidates hire third-party vendors to manage their valuable email lists, paying them a portion of the profits for their services. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who ended his brief presidential campaign deep in debt, has made back $441,000 in list rentals in the last year, FEC records show…

Much more detail at the link — it’s always interesting to see how many behind-the-scene grifters experts get a swig of ‘the mother’s milk of politics‘.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    My email list is also for sale. Will accept bitcoins.

    In addition, I will happily insult Ted Cruz’s family for remuneration.

    I’m conclusion, Ne-VAH-da.

  4. 4.

    redshirt

    I doubt it will matter in the future, because reality will be re-written, but my gods these Republicans are pathetic. Like weak, without macho, totally worthless.

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    the fact that Trump wears a necklace made of the testicles of Jeb, Cruz, Christie, Li’l Marco and Paul Ryan is almost enough… nah.

    I wonder if his shots at Kirk will cost Illinois votes. I was really hoping McCain would piss Trump off before the election, but Mr Character-and-Courage is being very careful. even stuck up for Trump’s PTSD remarks

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @schrodinger’s cat: I’ve also found that children age people. Whene people meet me and my brother they assume he is the elder. I actually am by more than six years. I get a kick out of it; he does not.

  11. 11.

    RaflW

    Oh, and earlier today I actually watched the short vid that the Schooley tweet uses a screen grab from. Degrading. Which he richly deserves!

  23. 23.

    John Revolta

    Yeah……………..they laughed at Nixon in 1966, out on the rubber chicken circuit, giving speeches for guys running for sheriff and dogcatcher. Oh, how they laughed.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @redshirt: He’s running for the Senate again? You’d think he’d take a little time off. Enjoy not doing anything for a bit. I guess he’s planning on messing with Mitch McConnell by signing on as a co-sponsor to every piece of Senate Republican caucus legislation proposed, which, based on the past seven years, should force them to immediately opposed their own proposals.

  32. 32.

    PatrickG

    Open thread… so I reached out to an old acquaintance in Wisconsin who I’ve semi-amicably argued with about Scott Walker for years now. She claims she will not vote for President. Trump disgusts her, Johnson is laughable, she dismissed Stein out of hand… but just doesn’t trust Hillary, and can’t justify voting for her.

    I shall persevere.

  33. 33.

    redshirt

    @Adam L Silverman: I meant of course she specifically says in the ad that she opposed Obama shutting down Guantanamo, ie “running against Obama”.

    Yes, Maggie, backstab the most popular Democrat and current President.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Whene people meet me and my brother they assume he is the elder. I actually am by more than six years.

    It’s amazing how much younger you look. I can tell from way over here!

    I thought it was just due to you being a clean-living, Grid-fearing man.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @amk:

    who is the worst corrupt sell-out, ted crud or granny starver?

    Did your computer suddenly die? I only see two on that list. You’re off by two orders of magnitude.

    At least.

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Fred Trump’s second son has ideas about foreign policy

    “Remember when we were young and we were studying history, and they talk about some of the great generals, and the great attacks?

    Name three of each, Donald. Even two

    … Wouldn’t it be nice if we attacked first, and talked about our great victory later?” the GOP nominee added.

    later, when our mission is accomplished?

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SFAW: I once saw an interview with a 90-something retired golfer. He was asked about his longevity. He responded “I drink Bourbon and smoke cigars every day. Hell of a blow to clean living, isn’t it?”

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Just watched it. Seems she was trying to draw a contrast between her own “Keeping NH safe from Terrists” cred and Ayotte’s missing half her Homeland Security meetings/briefings. The Obama/Gitmo comment came at the end of a list of things she (i.e., Hassan) has done or “supported.”

    Not the way I would have done it, but I’m not running, etc.

    On the plus side, Maggie pronounced “New Hamster” correctly.

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He responded “I drink Bourbon and smoke cigars every day. Hell of a blow to clean living, isn’t it?”

    I guess I’ve been doing it all worng.

  56. 56.

    cmorenc

    @SFAW:

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He responded “I drink Bourbon and smoke cigars every day. Hell of a blow to clean living, isn’t it?”

    I guess I’ve been doing it all worng.

    The best answer on how to do that right is “blow and hookers”.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @cmorenc:

    The answer on how to do that right is “blow and hookers”.

    I always thought it was “hookers and blow,” but maybe that’s just a New York (pronounced “New York”) thing.

    Either way, not my thing, but perhaps I’m an outlier.

  63. 63.

    Jeffro

    @amk:

    who is the worst corrupt sell-out, ted crud or granny starver?

    I’m telling y’all, it’s as easy as following the Mercers…er, excuse me…follow the money.

    Same difference.

    We’ve been watching the Kochs while a whole new family o’ trouble has cropped up…

  65. 65.

    Suzanne

    God, he’s so gross. Seriously I don’t know how anyone ever ducks him. GOD SO NASTY.

    I have to admit, the only good thing about Trump winning the primary is that I get to enjoy Ted Cruz being a LOO-HOO-HOO-ZER.

  66. 66.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Grumpy Old Man Johngcole
    Is loretta sanchez having a public emotional breakdown like Trump?

    Is Cole talking about the dab from last night, campaigning with Issa, or did something else happen?

  67. 67.

    Lizzy L

    OT but tangential: Rick Scott, Governor of Florida, has turned down a request from the Clinton campaign to extend the voter registration deadline in Florida. It may not matter. According to Politico,

    voter-registration records show, Democrats are walloping Republicans. The Florida Democratic Party has submitted about 488,000 voter-registration forms it has collected for this election, while Republicans have submitted roughly 60,000, according to state reports.

    In all, about 1.9 million voter-registration forms have been collected by nearly 700 groups statewide. Most of those groups appear Democrat-leaning or are dedicated to registering poor, young and minority voters who tend to vote for Democrats. The National Council of La Raza/Democracia USA, for instance, has registered about 49,000 people for this election — nearly all Hispanic, at least 60 percent of whom are voting for Clinton, records show.

    Scott, of course, is the head of the Trump PAC in Florida. There is also an issue with absentee ballots.

    ….The hurricane might make absentee-ballot voting problematic because people might be displaced or have other residency problems that make voting by mail tougher in a disaster zone. So far, about 2.6 million Floridians are slated to receive absentee ballots. The deadline for all counties to start sending them is Tuesday. Election-law blogger Rick Hasen, of the University of California Irvine School of Law, said Hurricane Matthew could be the ultimate election problem for the nation, not just Florida. “Displaced Floridians will want to vote absentee, but absentee ballots that were mailed won’t be available for some, creating complications,” he said on Twitter, where he predicted Democrats would sue.

    Florida — ballots — courts — it’s deja vu all over again!

  68. 68.

    Onkel Fritze

    In all fairness, Teddy is just taking one for daddy.

    Trump promised a full presidential pardon to Cruz Sr. for his involvement in the JFK assasination.

  72. 72.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    I could introduce you to a bunch of guys (and a few gals) who must fall into the unlucky side. Fella I see every day at the VA lost his cousin today, died of lung cancer, at the same VA hospital. I think it really hit him hard, he almost cried telling me about it, while over the last 3 weeks of seeing him every day he has done little more than acknowledge my existence.
    If anyone wants to see people having a bad day, go to your closest regional VA hospital and just sit out front or in the lobby for 2 or 3 hrs.

  74. 74.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Is that a resonant issue in NH?

    Haven’t (yet) seen the ad Redshirt cites, but there’s an anti-Hassan superpac ad running here in the Boston market which accuses her of ‘supporting Hillary Clinton’s plan to release terrorists from Guantanamo Bay and send them back to rejoin ISIS’. Which is 17 kinds of wrong, but I can understand why Hassan’s team might decide NAH SHE DIN’T works better in a 30second spot.

  75. 75.

    Bruce K

    Ted Cruz is a great example of what happens when you treat both Charisma and Wisdom as dump stats.

  76. 76.

    Aleta

    This short film is at the Atlantic website.

    The short documentary Just A Dog, by Andrea B. Scott, tells the story of how one African American family’s pet dog, Seven, was killed by police on the family’s private property in Hartford, Connecticut. The family sued the police department for unjustly killing the dog under false pretenses that there was a gun on the property. The moral of the film seems to be that police disregard for the lives of African Americans extends to their pets as well, and that the system continues to fail them in the pursuit of justice. “With everything going on, it’s kind of hard to be convinced that they’re on my side,” says the dog’s owner, who goes by K in the film. “You took my best friend, you’re killing black people, I mean, you can’t work with a dog how do we expect you to work with people?”

  77. 77.

    workworkwork

    @PatrickG: Had a similar call with my little sister. She’s not Republican but is a die-hard Bernie-or-Buster.

    I managed to leave it at “I hope Hillary will pleasantly surprise you and remember that voting is not just every four years between naps.”

Comments are closed.