Ted Cruz’s Tour de Force

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Just wait. Just wait a little while. Watch how this unfolds. Watch how the perception of Ted Cruz’s performance changes. It was a tour de force. How can anyone be sure of that? Easy.

The mindless invective rained upon him tells you all you need to know. The little people (you know, those of us who elect the politicians who then think we work for them) were electrified by Cruz’s “filibuster.”

WASHINGTON — Following the epic, 21-hour speech by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, supporting the defunding of Obamacare, either voters made so many calls to establishment Republicans that their phone lines melted, or those GOP leaders took their phones off the hook.

Even in this age of digital wizardry and limitless voicemail, callers could not get through at all to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

A message said the senator was experiencing a high volume of calls and directed members of the public to call back later or visit his website.

It was the same story with the man who was the face of the GOP in the 2008 elections, former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

His phone was off the hook, too. Callers got a message stating his voicemail box was full.

The Arizona senator apparently had other matters on his mind during the Cruz speech, tweeting, “Final episode of #Broadchurch tonight – one of the most entertaining shows on TV right now.”

That prompted conservative commentator Michelle Malkin to tweet, “Meanwhile, McCain is tweeting about a TV show. See the problem here, America?”

The garbage heaped upon Cruz was almost unimaginable.

Cruz was called a “fraud” encouraging “governmental terrorism.” Cruz has been called a “whacko bird.”

And this was from Republicans.

The media was absolutely vicious and there could not have been a starker contrast between the coverage of Cruz and that of the Abortion Barbie:

Sen. Ted Cruz has been speaking on the Senate floor for almost 19 hours, as of this post. The talk is not technically a filibuster — he can’t actually block the Senate from going about its business — but symbolically, it’s more or less the same thing. The point is to show one’s opposition to something through a demonstration of physical will.

Which is why you can forgive conservatives for being upset with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Cruz affair. When a Democrat like Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis filibusters against abortion restrictions, she is elevated to hero status, her tennis shoes become totems. When Cruz grandstands against Obamacare, he is a laughingstock in the eyes of many journalists on Twitter, an “embarrassment” in the eyes of The New York Times editorial board.

“Gee I wonder why NYT and WaPo and everyone else gave ecstatic coverage to Wendy Davis but not to Ted Cruz. I just can’t make sense of it!” John Podhoretz, the conservative columnist, tweeted on Wednesday morning.

Yes, the difference between filibustering and grandstanding plays a part. Equally important is the fact that Cruz’s theatrics are frustrating members of his own party. But, part of the disparity in coverage is due to the fact that the mainstream media, generally speaking, don’t admire Cruz the way they admired Davis — or rather, they admire him only insofar as he makes for tragicomic theater, whereas they admired her on the merits.

Cruz is portrayed in the media as “aimless and self-destructive” (NYT ed board), elitist (GQ) and likely guided more by presidential aspirations than principles (CNN). Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, had no qualms about coming right out and calling Cruz, his former Princeton colleague, an “arrogant jerk” — and worse.

These portrayals may be accurate or inaccuarate — Cruz certainly has an elitist strain and he certainly has political ambitions. But that’s not the point: The point is that the coverage of Cruz has been critical, and in some cases unforgiving, from the outset. At least initially, Davis wasn’t viewed through a critical lens at all. Her willingness to stand for 11 hours was evidence of the American dream in action. Period.

GOP Representative Peter King looked around and discovered that he was on the wrong planet:

Rep. Peter King, who has pulled no punches in criticizing Ted Cruz, said Thursday that supporters of the Texas senator have been bombarding his office with “vile” phone calls.

The New York Republican has called Cruz a fraud for his calls to defund Obamacare, and said the senator’s campaign this summer to get the House to pass a government funding bill that defunds the health care law led to some offensive phone calls to King’s office.

“The vehemence of the phone calls coming into the office. I don’t care, people can call me whatever they want … I haven’t heard such vile, profane, obscene language,” King said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday.

And there’s more blowback. Mark Levin referred to John McCain as a ‘useful idiot for the Democrats’.

Cruz did fire up a lot of people, but he did more than that. He obliterated Dick Durbin:

In the last hour, even as he said he grew “weary” as his time arguing against ObamaCare was coming to a close, he found himself in a debate with the able and smart Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin on the Congress’s generous health-care plan.

Durbin complained that Cruz wanted to deny health care to the uninsured; did he not, Durbin asked, enjoy the benefits of the generous congressional health-care package himself?

Cruz said he wouldn’t answer Durbin until Durbin first replied to three questions Cruz had posed. Durbin, with an “a-ha” gesture, responded by saying it was clear Cruz was simply refusing to answer his embarrassing question.

He’d walked into Cruz’s trap. For then Cruz said, no, Senator, I’m eligible for the congressional plan — but I’m not enrolled in it.

Durbin thought he had Cruz cornered by bringing up his reliance on the absurdly generous health package for Congress. But since Cruz doesn’t rely on it, Durbin humiliated himself in what was supposed to be his gotcha moment.

Despite his marathon of speaking and standing and arguing, after nearly a day on his feet, Cruz — there is no other term for it — squashed Durbin like a bug.

The best democrats had to offer in response? Dr. Seuss wouldn’t approve.

The more noise democrats make, the more Cruz struck at their hearts.

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.

And it would be best that conservatives ridded themselves of the democrats’ favorite Republicans:

After his disgraceful attacks on Cruz, including his reach-across-the-aisle, dog-in-the-manger response today, this should be the end of Senator John McCain as a voice of influence in the Republican party. Ditto his mini-me, Senator Lindsey Graham. Indeed, the entire Old Guard of business-as-usual “comity” fans passeth. When you care more about what the other side thinks, it’s probably time either to switch teams or step down.

It was a Tour de Force for Cruz. The ripples from his effort continue to spread and will be felt for a long time. Obamacare is a train wreck unfolding in slow motion right before our eyes.

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@Richard Wheeler:

Btw Your assertion the T-Bill has remained constant over 4 years is wrong. A move from 3.9% July 2009 to 1.6% in July 2013 is a huge percentage move of 59% and fueled the 8000+ market rally

You seem to be having mental problems. Where did I ever mention T-Bills?

Get back on your Aracept.

@ilovebeeswarzone: Bees I assure you when someone I respect like Aqua or Word or Skook or Curt asks me to stfu I’ll be gone. In the meantime enjoy your day. I’m on the road.

@Richard Wheeler:

Btw Your assertion the T-Bill has remained constant over 4 years is wrong. A move from 3.9% July 2009 to 1.6% in July 2013 is a huge percentage move of 59% and fueled the 8000+ market rally

RW, the lowest T bill rate in July 13 was 3.16. You can’t seem to get anything correct anymore, off the deep end? (need to stay away from that Fisherman’s pier, the water is likely over your head there..

Richard Wheeler
while you’re doing it,
live and let live and stop spiting on other,
you know it mean : stop ejecting saliva on the cyber space

@Redteam: T Bill 12 month low was 1.56% in May of 2013 down 59% from it’s 2009 high of 3.9% .It’s low in July 0f 2013 was 2.46% .
Bees Do you honestly think I’ve been spitting as badly as o5? I’m gonna take a break through the weekend. Best to all

@Richard Wheeler:

Bees Do you honestly think I’ve been spitting as badly as o5? I’m gonna take a break through the weekend. Best to all

RW, I don’t understand why someone that is supposed to be a mature person is ‘name-calling’ to make a point. Maybe your Mom and Dad didn’t tan your hide often enough in your formative years and you just didn’t learn better. No matter the reason, you need to grow up.

@Redteam: That’s pretty funny. Enjoy the weekend.

@Redteam:

Notice how Richard didn’t answer this:

You seem to be having mental problems. Where did I ever mention T-Bills?

And he wants to accuse me of being deranged? I guess he thinks he fooled everyone by addressing you in post #206.

@retire05:

And he wants to accuse me of being deranged? I guess he thinks he fooled everyone by addressing you in post #206.

He does seem to lose track of where he is at times and who he’s communicating with. I’m not sure why he keeps wanting to discuss the Stock market when he clearly doesn’t seem to understand it.

Ted Cruz’s Tour de Farce. . .

@Greg: Greggie, are you trying to make a funny?

@Greg:

Greggie, how much does OFA pay you?

Clown spotting is volunteer work.

@Greg: And that’s what you do for a living?

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