(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)
