“What Ted Cruz did – and what the go-along, get-along gang of Republican stegosauruses hate – is that he fought. He fought.”
More:
This was really about the war between the growing conservative majority in the GOP and the dying GOP establishment minority.
It’s a war that must be fought, and which we should welcome. And it’s a war we conservatives will win.
The party has changed from the bottom up in the last decade. Those at the top of the pyramid are finally realizing that they and the base below are out of synch. The GOP establishment was very, very happy to support the pre-Obama consensus that government would grow and that the Republicans would campaign against it at home then let it expand unhindered in D.C. The problem – in the eyes of the establishment – is that the newly conservative GOP base, energized and activated by Obama’s radicalism, actually wants to shrink the government.
We’re serious. That’s the problem. And with the unblinking eye of the social media upon them, they can’t fake it anymore.
The UK’s NHS already has death panels. And they pay doctors to let you die.. “I could keep you alive. Or I could pocket this splendid £50. Decisions, decisions.”
In Virginia, Nurse Bloomberg is backing gun-grabber Terry McAuliffe to the tune of $1.1 million. Let’s hope his spending is every bit as effective as it was in Colorado…
Also receives a warm welcome coming home to Texas. “After two months in Washington, it’s great to be back in America.”
Young people in Japan just can’t be bothered to have relationships or children. I wonder if any Guardian readers noticed that the declining birth rates in such a society must inevitably doom their European-style cradle-to-grave welfare states…
A look at the strange goings-on of the Grambling football team. Honestly, unless the university is completely and utterly broke, it sounds like someone in the administration was embezzling funds and is now trying to cover their tracks…
When it comes to ObamaCare, it turns out that Democrats lied about, well, pretty much everything. “Millions of low-income Americans won’t receive coverage. Many workers at small businesses won’t get a choice of insurance plans right away. Large employers won’t need to provide insurance for another year. Far more states than expected won’t run their own insurance marketplaces. And a growing number of workers won’t get to keep their employer-provided coverage.”
There is new leadership in the GOP, whether the party wants to admit it or not: Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions
The popular reaction to Cruz will be immediate and noticeable; the more the old bulls carp, the more the public will rally to Cruz’s side.
conservatives understand that rather than form a third party, their only hope is to seize control of the corrupt, rotting hulk of the GOP.
The Cruz faction in the Senate, and its allies in the House (whose leadership is now up for grabs) must now press their advantage. The louder the Democrats squawk, the more they are wounded; the one thing they’ve long feared is a direct assault on their core beliefs as translated into actions, and the deleterious effects of Obamacare, just now being felt by the population, are the most vivid proof of the failure of Progressivism that conservatives could wish for.
There is no reason to think the Tea Party, if properly organized and harnessed, cannot be even more potent next year than it was in 2010, especially now that its members know the government really was out to get them.
“Ted Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for 21 hours for a simple purpose: to focus the eyes of Washington and the nation on the fact that Obamacare has failed.”
Everyone know the real problem in Washington, D.C. is not that the debt limit is too low, it’s that government is too big and spends too much money that it doesn’t have, and meddles in things best left up to free citizens. Just as Ted Cruz did, we need to make those same points over and over again in the ongoing debt limit and ObamaCare battles, because we’re right.
I’m in the awkward position of supporting Ted Cruz et. al.’s attempt to defund-via-narrow-procedural-filibuster-followed-by-Democrats-blinking strategy while also believing that the effort is almost certainly doomed to failure. The reason it’s doomed is that it requires complex (and somewhat counter-intuitive) Senate rule voting maneuvers, and for Harry Reid and the Democratic majority to give in on key points, which I think is very unlikely. Nor do I agree with the “repeal it now or we’re stuck with ObamaCare for all time” rhetoric. There are no lost causes in American politics, because there are no won causes. The Great Recession isn’t making Obama and the Democratic crony cohort any more popular, making a GOP takeover of the the Senate in 2014 (and of White House in 2016, very possibly by Cruz himself) increasingly likely.
But I do think Cruz’s filibuster is necessary because he’s making the case for repeal and forcing the GOP establishment to either back him or show their true colors. All signs point to ObamaCare becoming more and more unpopular as time goes on, making repeal a winning issue. But the first step is actually fighting for repeal, and Ted Cruz is there.
Harping on a theme he’s harped on before, Mickey Kaus dinged Ted Cruz (again) for not opposing illegal alien amnesty with the single-minded focus Kaus thinks he should. (“You didn’t clap loud enough! Tinkerbell is dead!Amnesty is Alive!”) This criticism is misguided:
Mickey Kaus is a Democrat and an ObamaCare supporter, albeit an entirely more reasonable example of each than usually found, as well as an amnesty opponent. Thus dinging Ted Cruz for fighting ObamaCare rather than amnesty is basically saying “A Republican senator is fighting hard against a program I support but not fighting hard enough against a program I oppose.”
Those doubting Cruz’s opposition to amnesty should take another look at what he said about it back when I interviewed him in 2011:
Cruz fought and voted against amnesty when it was before the Senate, but now it’s before the House. Given that whole “bicameral legislature” idea, the issue is beyond Cruz’s legislative purvey.
While I won’t go so far as to declare amnesty dead (as some have), if only because the GOP establishment seems to have a limitless appetite for suicidal compromise, its chances this legislative session do look slim, and all that was accomplished without Cruz taking the leading role against it.
Given all that, Kaus continuing to harp on Cruz’s appears to be of an idee fixe on Kaus’ part than real criticism.
On the other hand, if you’re a Republican congressman, and you make $172,000 a year, you don’t get to complain about it. That means you, Rep. Phil Gingrey.
Biggest story you’re not hearing much about? German elections this weekend. If Angela Merkel’s party should lose, and be replaced with a party less enthused with endless PIIGS bailouts, well, things could get interesting.
Obama official refuses to release information pertaining to a a Freedom of Information Act request. Stonewalling the press and withholding evidence? Obviously he must be bucking for a promotion.
And the battle is joined. I support the move, and hope it’s the right course of action, knowing that it might not succeed. Then again, I would also be willing to see no spending limit raise at all, and force the federal government to live within its (which is to say our) means.
Now the ball is in the court of Senate Republicans, where Ted Cruz says he’ll filibuster any ObamaCare funding if necessary. Now would be a great time for senators like John McCain, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham to look at their political ID cards, realize they’re Republicans, and back him. Whether than will actually happen or not is another question.
Don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin…
It’s taking a while to get back up to speed after Worldcon, but here’s a little content to prove I’m not dead (just dead tired). And it’s proven a moving target that took longer to put together than I expected
The Hill has an an ongoing whip count on those who oppose or support a strike against Syria. Huffington Post has another count. This is shaping up to be a case of actual Americans on both the left and right opposing Obama’s Big Adventure, while the Permanent Party of Washington Insiders is supporting it.
Texas Congressmen On Record Opposing A Strike On Syria
(if no link from their name, they’re on the Hill or Huff Puff lists) Republicans