GOP Establishment Tries to Torpedo Cruz

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, along with Senator Mike Lee, has been one of the chief warriors out on the frontlines of this battle to defund Obamacare. He appeared on Fox News Sunday today, but was under attack before he even made it on camera… by his own party nonetheless. Fox host Chris Wallace said he received opposition research from top Republicans to use against Ted Cruz.

“This has been one of the strangest weeks I’ve ever had in Washington,” Wallace said. “As soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions, not from Democrats but from top Republicans, to hammer Cruz.”

Senator John McCain, one of the establishment Republicans who has continued to push back against Cruz, told CNN’s Jake Tapper last week, “In the United States Senate, we will not repeal, or defund, Obamacare. We will not.”

Like McCain, many in the GOP establishment have complained that defund efforts led by Cruz in the Senate are pointless and hurt the party. Some of this whining from other Senators has to do with the attention Cruz has received on this issue. Keep in mind that as a freshman Senator, Cruz is supposed to stay behind the scenes, off the stage, away from big fights, and certainly not leading them. But, Ted Cruz doesn’t bow to convention.

The drumbeat in the media, from the left and right, has been to just give up and compromise. Move on. Forget about it. Obamacare is the law of the land.

Well, compromise got us here; to a nation on the brink of financial collapse. Compromise got us to nearly $17 trillion in debt. Compromise got us an entitlement system which is now boasting over $123 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Compromise brought us a Congress which now openly touts that they do not have to follow the laws of the land which they impose on us.  

Compromise and “bipartisanship” are generally code words for conservatives rolling over and accepting whatever the Democrats want. Or, as Matt Kibbe says:

Whenever Republicans and Democrats are working together to screw the American people, they call it bipartisanship.

It’s time for that to stop.

Win or lose, at least Cruz has the bravery to stand up against the Washington machine, and to represent the will of the people. Principle and conviction are hard things to find in the halls of Congress or the corridors of Washington bureaucracy. It’s nice to see someone still has some fight. 

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