WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST
Senate Smackdown:
Ted Cruz, Mike Lee ... SQUELCHED
by [GOP] Leaders
by [GOP] Leaders
The Rift Between Mitch McConnell
and Ted Cruz Widens.
 |
| Senator Cruz arrives Sunday on Capitol Hill |
By MANU RAJU and BURGESS EVERETT
7/26/15 1:52 PM EDT Updated 7/27/15 10:29 AM EDT
Ted Cruz just wanted a roll-call vote on Sunday. Instead, he got a smackdown.
Republican leaders, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), delivered what senators described as punishment for Cruz’s brazen floor tactics — the Texas senator first accused McConnell of lying and later sought to change Senate procedures in order to push for an Iran-related amendment.
So when Cruz came to the floor looking for at least 11 senators to agree to hold a roll-call vote, only three raised their hands. McConnell, sitting at his desk, turned around and peered at Cruz, who looked stunned at what had just happened. The Senate dispensed with his effort by a voice vote and quickly moved on, doing the same to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a Cruz ally who sought to use arcane procedures to force a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood.
It all went down in an instant, but the message was clear: If Cruz doesn’t want to play nice with his Republican colleagues, they will respond in kind.
“You learn that in kindergarten: You learn to work well together and play by the rules,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a close McConnell ally who was beaming after Cruz and Lee were handed such lopsided defeats. “Another thing you learn in kindergarten is to respect one another.”
The rebuke was the latest in an increasingly testy rivalry marked by accusations of deceit and grandstanding. Cruz, who is running for president, has sought to use his battles with his colleagues — on everything from the 2013 government shutdown to last year’s battle over the debt ceiling — to tell conservatives that he’s the one candidate who will take on an entrenched party leadership. But Republican senators view Cruz as a divisive figure who is only seeking to lift his profile by waging war with his colleagues.
Cruz, his voice rising, tore into McConnell just off the Senate floor.
“Granting a sufficient second for a roll-call vote is done customarily in the United States Senate,” Cruz told reporters. “Denying it is extraordinary, and it was done as a consequence of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell being afraid of this issue.”
He accused McConnell of scheming with Democratic leader Harry Reid.
“To see the so-called Republican leader whip against allowing a vote to defund Planned Parenthood … makes clear that the McConnell-Reid leadership is united in favor of Big Government,” Cruz charged.
The dispute stems from McConnell’s move on Friday to prioritize two amendments to a bipartisan highway bill: one that would revive the Export-Import Bank and another to repeal Obamacare, both at a 60-vote threshold. Renewing the charter of the Ex-Im Bank has the support of more than 60 senators and the business community. But Cruz and other conservatives say the bank amounts to corporate welfare.
The Senate voted 67-26 to move toward attaching a renewal of the bank charter to a must-pass highway bill. The Obamacare effort failed on party lines, 49-43.
The battle over the government agency stemmed from negotiations over a major trade bill in May. To win the support of three holdouts — Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) — McConnell promised that an effort to extend the Export-Import Bank’s charter would get a vote on the Senate floor.
But in Cruz’s telling, McConnell “looked” him and “every” member of the Senate Republican Conference in the eye and promised that the only assurance he gave was that the senators could offer the bank plan as an amendment on the floor.
On Friday, McConnell took procedural steps to allow the bank plan to be offered as an amendment to the highway bill. Afterward, in a fiery floor speech Friday, Cruz accused McConnell of telling a “flat-out lie” by shifting his plans to move the bank measure.
Republicans were taken aback, noting that the Senate has rules barring members from impugning the integrity of another senator — much less a party leader.
“I think it was a violation of the rules,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “It’s not how you treat a colleague regardless of how you feel.”
Tillis and several other GOP senators said Cruz’s rhetoric backfired. “Generally speaking,” Tillis said, senators declined to give him a roll-call vote because they disapproved of his name-calling and the risky precedent his tactics would set if he were successful in forcing a vote. A senior Republican senator said refusing to give Cruz a vote was not a coordinated strategy by the leadership: It came about after GOP senators discussed the matter quietly on the floor.
It was a “sign of displeasure” with Cruz, another top Republican said.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of Cruz calling McConnell a liar. “I know emotions run high on issues in the Senate, and those are the times when I think we have to take special care to abide by the rules of the Senate, particularly Rule 19, which is very clear that no senator is to impugn the integrity of another senator.”
Cruz denied that he violated any rules. And he lashed out at the Capitol Hill press corps for not investigating whether McConnell lied.
“In the entire course of this debate neither the majority leader nor any other senator has denied that he looked me in the eye and he looked every other Republican senator in the eye, and he flat-out said” there was “no deal on the Export-Import Bank. But he answered the subsequent question: Will you do anything to press it forward and press a vote?
“He told us this: I haven’t given them anything, I told them they could do what any other senator did. But what we saw on Friday is that statement was on its face objectively false.”
Cruz added: “There have been no stories about whether Mitch McConnell told the truth.”
In interviews, several Republican senators said they could not recall a confrontation between McConnell and Cruz in a party lunch, as Cruz described it on Friday. They also said they were not surprised that McConnell forced a vote on the Export-Import Bank because he’s been saying he would for weeks, publicly and privately.
“There was no misunderstanding,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
Similarly, Graham said that he went to the floor and told reporters on the day of the trade vote what the deal was: that McConnell would let proponents attach the Ex-Im Bank plan to the highway bill.
“Unless you have been completely missing in action, you’d know this day was coming,” Graham said. “I did a press release and floor statement” reiterating McConnell’s promises.
“I think he’s going down a road very few senators go,” Graham said of Cruz.
“Let’s even assume that he’s right, which he wasn’t, you still don’t do that,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said of Cruz’s floor antics. “My understanding is that Mitch McConnell told us what he was going to do.”
On Friday, Cruz announced his plans to push for his separate Iran amendment that sanctions on the country could not be lifted until the country recognizes Israel’s right to exist and frees four American hostages. His argument: If the leadership can attach unrelated amendments like the Ex-Im measure, senators should be allowed to move on the Iran amendment, as well.
But the process he employed sparked major concerns among Republicans, who worried it would set a dangerous precedent, throw the Senate’s procedures into disarray — and be difficult to explain to voters.
Then Lee tried to push through a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood. That, too, failed to muster enough support for a vote. On Monday, Lee is expected to try to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority vote of 51 senators, effectively circumventing the 60-vote requirement to break a filibuster after Democrats defeated an attempt to repeal the health care law on Sunday.
Cruz’s Texas colleague pointedly shot down his effort. Sen. John Cornyn, the GOP’s chief vote-counter, called Cruz’s strategy “a terrible mistake” and urged Republicans to vote against it, a rare public disagreement.
“If the rule that the junior senator from Texas is arguing for is embraced, we will lose all control of the Senate schedule. There will be chaos,” Cornyn said. “Any senator who wants to get a vote on an amendment will be entitled to do so and that can’t be the rule. It’s not the rule. It’s never been the rule.”
... MEANWHILE ...
If McConnell and the GOOP leadership could only show the same backbone in trying to stop Obama's disastrous agenda.
ReplyDeleteI believe that good, stand-up conservatives like Lee and Cruz are a bigger threat to McConnell, Boehner and the go-along, get-along GOOPERS than Obama and the Pelosicrats.
Thank you. You are correct, of course.
DeleteI am fed up, sick and tired of Establishment RINOS. They are nothing but a bunch of PUSILLANIMOUS old PUSSIES.
PHEW! (:-o
They sicken me. They don't even put up a token resistance anymore.
DeleteCan anyone remember the last time the GOP actually rose in disagreement to Obama's agenda?
The GOOP's latest accomplishment is passing Obama's wet kiss to global corporatists "trade agreement," and that's after sitting on their hands with their thumbs up their asses for over two years as Obama floods the nation with undocumented Democrat voters and future islamic terrorists.
DeleteLet`s get a real man in the White House, Ted Cruz will eliminate waste, fraud, traitors, Socialist, and support our allies in the World, like Israel for one, unlike this bum in the White House, or any Democrat Socialist Progressive for that matter!!!
ReplyDeleteDo you really believe israel is "our" ally? I know "we" have functioned as Israel's ally since the country was founded in 1947-48. We have done Israel a great deal of good. In fact "our" money may have been one of the primary reasons Israel was able to survive and prosper to the extent she has.
DeleteFor the life of me, however, I can't see what we have gotten in return for our kindness and generous support. My knowledge is limited, of course, so I'd be happy to learn if anyone could supply me with good information.
I share your disdain for Socialism, but feel I must remind you that Marxian-Communist-Socialist-Progressive-Liberal-Statism is largely an invention of atheistic Jewish intellectuals, and that Israel was founded as –– and to all intents and purposes remains –– a Socialist country.
The truth is that Hillary Clinton and the rest of the progressive socialist movement in reality, the neo-Communist Party in the United States – cannot and will not protect America and Americans. Nor uphold the Constitution or Rule of Law that governs us all.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to sum up Hillary Clinton in one sentence, it would by: corrupt, sleazy, and totally devoid of all American values.
Naturally, I appreciate my very few fans, BUT the post is about the corruption and indecency with which the Republican Establishment invariably treats newcomers who make any attempt at reforming the frankly PUTRID practices of the Washington Establishment.
DeleteSenator Cruz may NOT be The Answer to all our prayers, but at least he's making a good SHOW of TRYING to upend and reform the entrenched stupidity, short-sightedness and self-serving corruption that has since the days of Ronald Reagan turned the party to a toxic brand of mush.
The GOP is out of control tight now. There is some semblance of sanity in the Senate, as you can read, but the House and out there in the states the GOP is just chock full of buffoons, idiots, loonies, and worst of all demagogues. Cruz is the worst and sleaziest sort of demagogue. Joseph McCarthy almost to a tee. Cruz has now hitched his wagon to Donald Trump, knowing they share the same constituency, angry simple people shaking their fists at Father Time. It's a shame it could only take personal insult to get him to act, but good for the GOP leadership for shutting down these two scumbags, Lee and Cruz. It's about time. They are nothing but sleazy self-serving troublemaker who contribute nothing of any value whatsoever. You really have to be a f'n moron to like these guys.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
Jersey just hates a democracy where everyone doesn't toe the corporatist party line!
DeleteSaid the indoctrinated little sycophant eagerly awaiting his chance to vote for a corrupt, incompetent old hag who is a crony crapitalist and globalist wet dream...
DeleteAW, c'mon guys! Yagotta love our Jersey. If nothing else, his predictable histrionics tend –– at the very least –– to make OUR point of view look more palatable.
DeleteSo, please try in future be less vulgar and more polite when you address him, and THAT will make "US" look even better, capiche?
Love Jersey Boy? fugeddaboudit!
DeleteHe's got Hillary's pubes rolled up in that cig he's smokin'!
Phil Sphincter said
DeleteHow I wish that were true!
Hm, what is despicable, and likely what jersey hates too, is republican gerrymandering to insure the GOP become the minority "majority" party.
DeleteI am against gerrymandering in principle, even it supposedly benefits "my" party. We'd do better if a simple GRID PATTERN were imposed in each state, then let the cuos fall where they may.
DeleteGerrymandering is a good example of MANIPULATIVE tactics. If it were possible to eliminate this continual monkeying around with the status quo, and also to limit the power of LOBBYISTS severely, we might be able to have a cleaner, leaner government who considers representing the will of its constituents its primary business, instead of catering to the pressure brought by of special interests.
With a US House and US Senate majority, as well as 33 governorships and a majority of statehouses, to include 24 states where GOP has the trifecta (dems have 7 states) of governor and both state legislative bodies, the GOP is not a minority party by an stretch of the imagination.
DeleteGet that? There are only 17 Democrat governors in the United States.
Nothing in any recent election results points to a Democrat majority in the US. There are two many people in the middle (God bless them!) who are not hard partisans, but who vote for the best candidate regardless of party.
Gerrymandering swings both ways. Repubes in Florida conspired with Dems to gerrymander Col West out of his district, and it is pushed by Dems, with the support of Repukes, to guarantee 'minority' districts with representation that 'looks like them.'
Lib Dems tend to pack themselves tight in dense urban hives, so it is not the GOP's fault that their districts are over-optimized, resulting in not enough of them in the other districts where they can threaten to flip them.
A grid pattern would be very inefficient, but there are some interesting mathematical models out there that draw boundaries based upon population density, etc.
http://ballotpedia.org/Gubernatorial_and_legislative_party_control_of_state_government
SF,
DeleteNothing in any recent election results points to a Democrat majority in the US. There are two many people in the middle (God bless them!) who are not hard partisans, but who vote for the best candidate regardless of party.
I hope that is still holding for 2016.
Yes. Yes, of course, BUT what GOOD is "our" current majority accomplishing, since it is ACTING like a bunch of LOSERS beholden to the will of the Democrats?
DeleteWhatever "victories" Republican have achieved in the post-Reagan years have been hollow and essentially meaningless.
And THAT –– may I remind us all again –– is the subject of THIS post –– the treacherous, self-servng complacency of current so-called Republican "leaders."
As we used to say in Brooklyn, "They STINK on ice."
IF the GOP runs an establishment candidate, I will abstain from voting altogether, because the process of casting a ballot will in truth have become nothing but an exercise in futility.
FreeThinke: Indeed. The incompetent, inept, Stockholm syndrome GOOP in Congress has managed to turn their majorities into a permanent defensive crouch.
DeleteRepublicans were taken aback, noting that the Senate has rules barring members from impugning the integrity of another senator — much less a party leader.
ReplyDeleteRINO's have integrity? Gimme a break!
Yesterday I heard some commentator -- Brit Hume, perhaps -- saying that Cruz stood up to the RINO's for one reason and one reason only: Donald Trump has been stealing Cruz's thunder as the anti-establishment GOP candidate for 2016.
I don't buy Hume's analysis for one minute.
I am sorry to learn more each day that even FOX has taken a pro-RINO-anti-Conservative stance. Exactly what we DON'T need right now. I spotted Brit Hume as a really good guy many years ago when he still worked as White House correspondent for ABC News, but it seems apparent that just about ANYONE who hangs around the Washington Establishment long enough will eventually become part of it's innately corrupt nature almost by osmosis.
DeleteI said something similar about BOSTON just yesterday at another blog. Just BEING there for any length of time seems bound to turn intelligent, once-sensible people into snotty, belligerent, self-righteous, sometimes shrieking, roaring practitioners of leftist GroupThink.
The very idea that GEOGRAPHICAL loci could play a part in these matters seems irrational, BUT ...
What else might account for it? ;-)
Your candidates suck, therefore you suck. In fact you sick anyway! There's only about 4 pathetic, whiny candidate pimping screeds that are masquerading as diaries out there on the list. Half of the GOPer are drama Queens, the other half are stupid buffoons.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your brilliant powers of perception and refined skills in verbal communication with us. You are indeed, a great testament to your party and personal political point of view.
DeleteAs you know and as required by the Constitution, a sitting president is required to inform Congress of the state of our union once per year during his term(s). Today, we'll be fact checking that speech.
ReplyDeleteThe Lair-in-Chief who was elected and re-elected on Affirmative Action and white liberal guilt. Made one of his most UN-memorable, and worse speeches last nignt. I thought the speech was very sad because number one, no one is interested in Global Warming any longer, and no one cares about your immigration reform either. We have much to mush to worry about with the economy and with terrorism these days!
Over and over all I heard for the past 5 years was Obama saying that he will not rest until...... on and on. I went back and looked at last years speech and 3 years back. It is the same speech just with different "I will's and I shall". He is still working around the edges to the economy and he still thinks that the rich got rich by robbing the poor. Same as all the years back.
Yes, but the subject of the post was the nature of the Republican Establishment's TREATMENT of NEW BLOOD whose vigorous ideas and assertions MIGHT be able to save the nation, or at the very least check is downward slide.
DeleteThe things you dislike and distrust most about government are not the sole property of DEMOCRATS.
I had hoped the article might help you and others become more aware of the complex nature of the political and philosophical evils we face.
Blind chauvinistic devotion to one party or the other is not going to help anyone BUT the admittedly ROTTEN ESTABLISHMENT.
What Do Hippies, Druggies, Lazy Bums, Handout-Freaks, Dumb Old ladies, and Other Liberals Have in Common with Hillary Clinton?
ReplyDeleteThe people listed above are not old enough, or smart enough, or who are not patriotic enough to know the truth, or care enough about the Clintons. Hillary Clinton is an aging Marxist who was mired in corruption, cronyism, and lying for her entire political career. And, that if not for her pervert husband Bill, the sexual predator, it is most like that Hillary Clinton would be either a money-grubbing lawyer trading favors or a bitter, shrill Marxist.
Bottom line …
If there is anyone who would rob America and its youth of their rightful place in the world and abundant opportunity, it is Hillary Clinton – so corrupt she stole the furnishings of the White House – “The People’s House” as she walked out the door.
The sad truth is that Hillary Clinton and the progressive socialist democrats – in reality, the neo-Communist Party in the United States – cannot and will not protect America and Americans. Nor uphold the Constitution or Rule of Law that governs us all.
If I had to sum up Hillary: corrupt, sleazy, and totally devoid of American values.
The subject of the post was the nature of the Republican Establishment's TREATMENT of NEW BLOOD whose vigorous ideas and assertions MIGHT be able to save the nation, or at the very least check its downward slide.
DeleteThe things you dislike and distrust most about government are not the sole property of HILLARY CLINTON.
I had hoped the article might help you and others become more aware of the complex nature of the political and philosophical evils we face, which have become endemic to BOTH partes.
Blind chauvinistic devotion to one party or the other is not going to help anyone BUT the admittedly ROTTEN WASHINGTON, D.C. ESTABLISHMENT.
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ReplyDeleteWE DELETE IRRELEVANT REMARKS.
ReplyDeleteCouldn’t agree more with your blog.. We desperately need someone that can repair the damage caused by Obama, and his ilk.
ReplyDeleteI have had it with these lying and thieving Leftist politicians, the whole democratic-Liberal party DISGUSTS ME!!!! I tend to expect a degree of decency and honesty from a candidate, but i also know deep down that there aren’t too many of decent ones around.
Personally, I think Trump is the man to do it. I like Cruz for breaking Reagan’s 11th commandment this week by bringing down McConnell. It tells me just how fucked up the entire system is at the moment.
Lying is in vogue in Washington. There has to be at least one politician left in this country with integrity.
Then again, maybe not. But either way I don’t think that Hillary Clinton is a issue at all. I seriously doubt very much if she will even get the nomination or run . hopefully that bitch will be in jail by the time election day rolls around. And that goes for her Husband as well.
And by the way, as for that “Other” blog that says that Jew’s are for the Iran “deal”, that is 100percent Bull S$#!!. The truth is 78% of Jewish and Israelis say Iran that the deal endangers Israel. and are against it.
The poll, which was taken last Wednesday. And in a survey of JEWISH AMERICANS it shows opposition to Iran Deal Increases With More Knowledge of Arguments
The more Jewish Americans know about the Iran nuclear deal the less they like it, a new poll first seen exclusively by The Algemeiner showed.
The survey of 1,034 people was conducted by Olive Tree Strategies on behalf of pro-Israel advocacy group The Israel Project. It claims a margin of error of 3 percent, and is the most extensive yet to be conducted on the issue. It comes as a wide array of U.S. Jewish groups have announced opposition to the deal, which is believed to endanger Israel and U.S. security. The survey of Jewish AMERICANS finds the more they know about Iran deal the more they oppose it.
And even thought he acts that way, Obama is NOT the President of the world.
Thank you. I'm glad to hear that a growing number of America Jews disapprove of the current "deal" with Iran, if it's really true. I find an interesting conflict of interest among most Jews. About 75-80% of them identify as "liberal"or "progressive," and therefore, vote for Democrats. Most supported –– and continue to support –– Obama. And yet, Obama's obvious disdain for Israel ought by rights to chill Jewish ardor for this administration, but so far from what i an see it has not.
DeleteThere are powerful Conservative voices among the Jews to be sure, but they still represent a very small minority of the Jewish community.
Now, what do you think abut the way the "leaders" of the Republican Party treat New blood with challenging ideas?
ReplyDeleteNo matter how much these Libs learn, they still forget or get it wrong. Or is it that they just don't care, as long as they gain the White House!
They like to think they are "right" and "we" are wrong –– or say they insist ––, but I believe their primary concern is grabbing and holding enough power to be able to function in a DICTATORIAL capacity.
DeleteA quick look at today's White House should give ample proof of that, don't you think?