I had read headlines about this speech by Ted Cruz, but watching it finally was even better.
As background, Sean Sullivan at WaPo’s The Fix points out our house is divided, Ted Cruz vs. John McCain: Welcome to the new normal in the Senate:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) feuded this week. Then they feuded some more. It wasn’t the first time tensions between the longtime senator and the freshman tea party favorite flared up. And it’s a pretty safe bet that it won’t be the last.
The dispute between McCain and his allies and Cruz and his cohort lays bare a new fault line in the Senate GOP Conference — one that threatens to further stall movement in a legislative chamber already seized by partisan gridlock.
At issue this week: the budget. The setting: the Senate floor. Cruz, along with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Mike Lee of Utah called for Senate Republicans to block efforts to move the budget debate to a conference committee (both the House and Senate have separately passed budgets) without a guarantee Democrats won’t surreptitiously try to insert an automatic increase to the nation’s debt limit through a procedural tactic.
“We could go to conference right now, today, if the Democrats would simply say, we won’t raise the debt ceiling with just using 50 votes,” Cruz said on the Senate floor Thursday.
McCain, along with moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and others, have challenged their conservative colleagues, decrying the effort to delay, especially after Senate Democrats finally passed a budget for the first time in three years. The obstruction, McCain said Thursday, threatens to “paralyze the process.”
I stand with the new.
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“The obstruction, McCain said Thursday, threatens to “paralyze the process.”
Excellent. Now, can we paralyze immigration reform?
I wish I had donated to Ted Cruz. He’s on my list of people to donate to the next time around he runs.
As for Mccain, I finally understand now why conservatives don’t like him.
“McCain said Thursday, threatens to “paralyze the process.””
Uh, that is the POINT!
I carry a deep cynicism about politics I believe is fully warranted, and was disappointed but not surprised to see Rubio go all wobbly over immigration, but Ted Cruz more and more appears to be the real deal, a conservative who will not compromise his basic values.
Thank you, Texas. Send more.
Cruz is doing the job for which he was sent to Washington. It’s a rarity today. Love it! I wonder if he’ll be audited with all the problems the IRS has right now?
WAIT…. you mean John McCain is now against being a Maverick?
If Reid’s intent were not to do exactly that – sneak a debt ceiling vote into reconciliation with a 50 vote + Bilbo Biden passage – he would just agree to the demand. It would cost him nothing.
The only reason he won’t is because that is his plan, and he hopes to dupe some Republicans into going along just to get a budget to conference.
McCain, Graham, etc.. are more than willing to be Reid’s useful idiots.
“My Friend, the Esteemed Senator from Arizona” = “you goofy, clueless, out-of-touch old fool”
You forgot ‘backstabbing Stockholm Syndrome sufferer.’
The obstruction, McCain said Thursday, threatens to “paralyze the process.”
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When “the process” is as corrupt and counter-productive as this Senate’s, paralysis is the best we can hope for.
Keep doing what you’re doing, Senator Cruz. This Arizona voter is grateful that at least one member of the Senate is doing his job and protecting Americans’ interests.
Five years without a budget, John, is already paralyzed. You need to be us Reid’s a** about Senate paralysis, not Cruz’s!
I nominate Observer to primary McCain next opportunity.
He won’t be able to dip in the Palin well a second time, too.
I will not say that I absolutely trust Cruz. He is after all both a politician AND a Republican politician. The difference between a Republican and a Democrat politician is that a Democrat will stab you in the front; while a Republican will stab you in the back, repeatedly, and tell you that you owe him loyalty for his doing so.
That said, he is damned near the only politician who is openly standing up against those of both parties who are trying to destroy the Constitution. He fights, and at no small personal risk to himself from both sides. And that counts for a great deal. A very great deal. And it is the only hope we have at present to avoid returning to Hobbes’ political state of nature.
Subotai Bahadur
Interesting.
Cruz is about the only one I trust.
By trust, I mean to apply conservative principles as a template to each and every “issue”, no matter how obscure.
By trust, I mean to be the same man he was before becoming a Senator.
The only other one that I trust is Allen West, but he’s been sidelined.
Simply tremendous, it cannot be explained more clearly. Wouldn’t you love to see a camera shot of the “esteemed senator from Arizona” from the 5:30 mark when the “dirty little secret” is revealed. More “wackobirds” please.
Cruz is upsetting Pelosi, McCain, and the NYT. All the reasons I voted for him. Give them hell.
The first time I ever heard of Ted Cruz was when George Will profiled him in a column about two years ago. I still remember the title: “In Ted Cruz, a Candidate as Good as it Gets”. So far, I think that title was spot on.
Its sort of sad to watch the tired, old McRino arguing for the establishment against a dynamic, young, vibrant Cruz who is arguing that the establishment is the source of the problems.
I too stand with the “new.”
Ted Cruz is my senator and for the firs time in years we’re hearing the truth in very certain terms. McRino OTOH just proves every day the justification for term limits.
Go get ’em Ted!!!
Good Bye, McCain.
McCain went from Maverick to Marshmallow in a decade.
He was never a ‘maverick,’ only a traitor to his party.
Of course, to the Democrat media, this is a ‘maverick.’
You have a firm grasp of the obvious.
I see stories like this, I say hooray for Sarah Palin. She thanked McCain by helping him get re-elected. She ensured that Utah would remain GOP by helping Hatch. Then, cleverly, she supported Ted Cruz and others who would put an end to the good ol’ boy comity in the Senate. McCain and Hatch have what they want: they are still called ‘senator’; the GOP has what it needs, enough numbers to prevent the Dems from doing as they please; more importantly, the Republic has what it needs, men like Cruz who will fight for We, the People.
Alan Dershowitz said Ted Cruz was one of the smartest students ever to go through his classes at Harvard Law after graduating with honors from Princeton.
“While at Princeton, he competed for the American Whig-Cliosophic Society’s Debate Panel and won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship.[15] In 1992, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year and Team of the Year (with his debate partner, David Panton).[16] Cruz was also a semi-finalist at the 1995 World Universities Debating Championship.”
“Cruz served as a law clerk to William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, and J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.[23][3] Cruz was the first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States.”
Also impressive: “Cruz attended high school at Faith West Academy in Katy, Texas, and then graduated from Second Baptist High School in Houston.”
Heh! Cruz is not just a missile, he’s a dozen or so stealth bombers and fighter jets fully armed.
What we hopefully have here is a man of principle, courage and conviction paired with a good brain untainted, and undamaged by leftist ideology.
But, wait, there’s more:
“Cruz then attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1995. While at Harvard Law, Cruz was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. As a student at Harvard Law, Professor Alan Dershowitz said, “Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant.”
This Ted fella is not a fake.
TY for posting that article . Excellent information for those who don’t know the Senators background . His background is solid and eye opening . Reid is scared to death of the Cruz missile . HaHa good stuff. Good Day
yeah I’m going to trust the mccain-feingold keating 5 idiot on how to act.
NOT.
Subtle WaPo slant, McCain has allies but Cruz has cohorts. Typical, wonder if it was the author or the editor to make that distinction.
God bless Ted!!!!
Ted is the kind of politician we desperately need, if we ever want to get back to basics, and be fiscally responsible. John McCain is a blithering idiot, who wants everyone to get along, at the expense of the tax payers.
Cruz reminds me of a NC icon who was hated by Democrats, the media, and most of his fellow GOP-ers, but beloved by his constituency precisely because he refused to compromise on his principles and values. That would be ‘Senator No’, Jesse Helms (R-NC).
Cruz’s proposal did not have to be framed as “obstructionism”. It could have been framed as “seeking assurances that the process would be honored.”
Just sayin’
Thank you Texas, for electing Ted Cruz. Curse you Arizona, for electing John McCain.
Tim? Tim? Where are you Tim? Do you have a voice Tim?
As in Tim Scott from SC.
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