Balloon Juice - Cruz-ifiction Archives

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

… and in every year, suffer a million pains, as the old curse goes. Tailgunner Ted’s grandstanding has been a great argument — against his own party.

Here’s ‘The Fix’ in the Washington Post:

… “In an effort to help him run for president, he has done some stuff that’s really damaging to our country,” Reid told Univision, according to an advance transcript. “He’s been attempting to raise money. And who has he hurt? He has hurt average Americans. The government being shutdown for 14 or 15 days, that has been very hurtful to people. Not only the people that work for government, but the people who work around government.”…

Reid also said that if Republicans go down the same road again in future budget talks, they will imperil their House majority — which is otherwise considered relatively safe — in 2014.

“The American people will not put up with that” approach, Reid said. “And if this happens again — I don’t think it will, but if it does — I think the House of Representatives will go Democratic.”

And Greg Sargent:

… It’s easy to make fun of GOP Rep. Peter King, but he was one of the few to call out GOP insanity from the inside early in this process. Now, in an interesting and entertaining interview with Capital New York, he’s calling for Republicans to wage war on Ted Cruz. King predicts the Texas Senator will try do this all again in a few months, and crucially, he points out that it’s on the non-crazy Republicans to prevent this from happening… [Cruz] will claim that victory was at hand, if only the corrupt GOP establishment hadn’t gone all weak-kneed at the last minute. Remember, Ted Cruz’s strategy to liberate the country from Obamacare can’t have failed; it was failed…

But if the Cruzites do demand another round of crises, it will put rank and file Republican officials and candidates in a quandry. It’s unlikely that the Cruzian zeal for confrontation — or the anger at the insufficiently zealous GOP establishment – will have diminished. Rush Limbaugh is already excoriating the GOP for trying too hard to make people “like them.” (Dude, if that’s true, it ain’t working.) Erick Erickson is muttering darkly about primary challenges. As Francis Wilkinson explains: “The Republican Party is an object of contempt to many on the far right, whose adamant convictions threaten what they perceive as Republican complacency…they demand a higher level of fealty to their goals than pragmatic middle-of-the-roaders can bear.” …

And yesterday,(via Billmon) Democracy Corps is maybe just a little gleeful:

Keep in mind, Ted Cruz is mainstream in the Republican base. According to the latest national survey conducted for Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund, which fielded just last week, Ted Cruz is right at the center of a Republican Party that is majority Tea Party and Evangelical. Combined, these groups make up over half of Republican partisans, and comprise over 60 percent of the GOP when you include the religious observants.

Cruz is immensely popular with Tea Party adherents. Among this group, 75 percent give him a positive rating and half give him an intensely positive rating (over 75 on our 100-point scale.) His average rating among this group is a stunning 81.8 out of 100. While he is less well known among Evangelical Republicans, he is no less popular among those who identify him—40 percent give him a positive rating, a third are intensely favorable toward him. On average, Evangelicals give Cruz a rating of 75.9 out of 100…
[E]ven as pundits label Cruz as “fringe,” it is critical to remember that this is only true when talking about the national electorate. In his own party, there is nothing “fringe” about Ted Cruz. He is right at the center.

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Apart from schadenfreude, what’s on the agenda today?

Early Morning Open Thread: Sen. Cruz, May He Live A Thousand Years…Post + Comments (82)

(Walt Handelsman via GoComics.com)

Mr. Popularity explains to Robert Costa [warning: NRO link] that it’s everyone’s fault but his that the GOP shutdown tanked the party’s standing in return for… nothing:

According to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, it’s his colleagues, more than anyone, who should be blamed for the failure of the defund-Obamacare campaign — and he expects conservatives to remember come primary season.

“Unfortunately, rather than supporting House Republicans, a significant number of Senate Republicans actively, aggressively, and vocally led the effort to defeat House Republicans, to defeat the effort to defund Obamacare,” Cruz says, in an interview with National Review. “Once Senate Republicans did that, it crippled the chances of this effort, and it caused the lousy deal.”…

Cruz knows many Senate Republicans are unlikely to appreciate his advice to conservatives, or his appetite for another showdown early next year. He doesn’t care, though, since he believes his push to stop Obamcare and connect the party to disenchanted voters beyond the Beltway is critical to the GOP’s future success. “That transformation, shifting the power from the closed rooms in Washington, from the lobbyists and monied interests on K Street, and back to the American people, is the most important fight,” he says.

“I cannot help if others choose to launch personal assaults and insults at me,” Cruz says. “What I can control is how I respond, and I have not and will not respond in kind. Instead, I was elected to do a job, and that is to represent 26 million Texans. . . . Regardless of the attacks, my focus remains on the substance.”

“Every day, I jump out of bed with a smile on my face, because it is a joy to have the opportunity to stand with the American people and work to help restore people’s faith and optimism in our nation,” he concludes. “It’s an incredible honor to play a small role in expanding the American dream.”

I thought Cruz was just another grifter, but he’s a grifter who’s come to believe his own con. He’s not gonna run for President, but he’s quite willing to be anointed as America’s God-King.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Come on, man.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

We still have time to mess this up!

After roe, women are no longer free.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

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

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You cannot shame the shameless.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Early Morning Open Thread: Sen. Cruz, May He Live A Thousand Years…

Self Cruz-ifiction, It’s All the Rage