Now another want to be famous Texan is disproving that old Tennessee/Texas saying.
That man is "Republican" senator Ted Cruz, who this week managed to backstab and severely the Republican Party for the 3rd time in 13 months.
See earlier this week the US congress voted to suspend the debt limit for an entire year. Basically what that means is that until March of 2015, we dont have a debt ceiling. We can basically do whatever we need to pay every bill we have, right up until the presidential primary process is getting underway.
Now Republicans have been saying for years now that they refuse to raise the ceiling without some kind of "concession" so that they can pay for the shit they already bought.
By the way, I tried this with my internet provider, I told them I wont pay the monthly bill until they give me some added benefit, so if this posts cuts out half way through thats likely why.
Now normally the republicans have won on paper, they get some minor policy "concession" that they can sell to their base as a win (the fact that normally that "concession" is either non binding or actually a democratic policy goal is a separate issue).
But that didnt happen this time. This time the Republicans got jack shit, they got nothing. At the same time though they did get 100% of what they asked for, because they asked for jack shit.
See House Republicans could all agree they wanted something in exchange for paying their bills, they just couldnt agree on WHAT they wanted. Which meant they couldnt come up with a demand. Which left them with only two choices:
1) Do nothing and allow the country to default and take 100% of the blame for it
2) Get a small number (28) of republicans in safe seats to cross party lines and vote with the Democrats for a clean increase.
Given that choice House Republicans sucked it up and choose choice #2.
The whole time this was happening Senate Republicans were breathing a HUGE sigh of relief. See thanks to being the minority, they kinda lucked out.
There are currently 55 democrats in the Senate, and only 51 are needed to pass anything. So the Clean Debt Ceiling bill could pass the senate, default could be avoided, and ALL republicans could go on record as being against such "fiscal irresponsibility" (as they call paying bills on time). All they had to do to get this win win situation was nothing.
And then Ted Cruz came along and decided "Fuck that" and he filibustered the bill.
Which meant the Senate Republicans now had a HUGE problem. If the bill failed it would go back to the house, who again have no choice due to lack of consensus, they either pass the bill clean or the GOP takes the blame for allowing default.
Which mean it HAD to pass/overcome the filibuster. Which meant it needed 60 votes. Which meant some Republicans HAD to support the bill.
Now keep in mind, this is an election year. And keep in mind, no matter the truth, the Republican base fully believes that raising the debt ceiling is actually irresponsible. And the Tea Party has been pretty good at knocking out incumbent Republicans in primaries.....only to lose in the general election to the Democrats
Which means, in an election where in theory, control of the senate hangs in the balance, no Republican actually wants to be the one to do this. I mean the 5 who switch sides are basically begging to be picked off in a primary.
But since it had to be done, it had to be done. And the republican answer was safety in numbers. If enough Republicans vote with the Dems it may save the more vulnerable ones by making it appear they had legitimate support.
Which is why 12 Republicans eventually crossed the line and voted with the Dems to overcome to filibuster to allow for a clean debt ceiling vote.
The thing is, the first Republican to be forced to lead the way? Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And the second? Minority Whip John Cornyn, the other Senator from Texas, both of whom are up for reelection in 2014 and facing tea party threats already.
Only after leadership was committed would 10 other republicans join them, only one of whom is actually up for reelection: Susan Collins of Maine, and half of whom arnt up for reelection until 2018.
Now Collins is a well known moderate Republican, and its a good chance her vote actually will help her in her moderate usually pro democrat state.
But Cornyn and McConnell were basically hung out to dry. Although expected to survive the primary quite easily, Cornyn is looking at a 3 way race (vs Democrats and Libertarians) and will be on the ballot at the same time Democratic Superstar Wendy Davis will be running for the state governor. Which means more Democrats then usual may show up to vote. So anything that could discourage republican base voters (like this vote) could be VERY bad in the long run for Cornyn, and possibly even all Republicans on the ballot in Texas.
McConnell on the other hand is already loosing in the polls to his Democratic Challenger. Now his is expected to beat the tea partier in the primary, but its a much tighter race. In otherwords being force into a vote that will annoy his base is absolutely the last thing he need.
So basically, thanks to Senator Cruz, its possible the ENTIRE republican senate leadership will be wiped out, and 2 Senate seats could fall to the Dem's (and its likely 1 will, and the republicans will lose their leader)
And what does Cruz get out of doing this? Nothing. Well except name recognition.
Nor actually does it stop there. When asked why he would make reelection harder for McConnell and Cornyn for no reason and to no gain Cruz said this.
“In the 13 months I’ve been in the Senate it has become apparent to me the single thing that Republican politicians hate and fear the most, and that is when they’re forced to tell the truth. It makes their heads explode. A lot of the Republicans wanted exactly what Barack Obama wanted, exactly what Nancy Pelosi wanted, exactly what Harry Reid wanted, which is to raise the debt ceiling, but they wanted to be able to tell what they view as their foolish, gullible constituents back home they didn’t do it.”
In other words, according to senator Cruz.
1) Republicans are liars. In fact they "hate the truth"
2) They dont fear lying because their constituents are too stupid to know they are being lied to.
Yea, that's gonna be in every single Democratic ad against every republican candidate for the next 4 years (or 10 if somehow Cruz wins relection in 2016). Heck that's probably going to in every Tea Party primary attack ad in that same time frame as well.
So good luck Republican's hopefully you've got a good answer as to why your the one republican who can be trusted after one of your own admitted your all liars.
And again what did Cruz get out of this? Nothing......except name recognition, and a mention everytime one of the attack ad's this will appear in gets aired.
But the ultimate irony to this whole thing, Cruz said he only came clean about all Republicans being liars because he was tried of the scam. Yet the first two times Cruz backstabbed the GOP he was lying.
First its when he caused the GOP to make the first ever filibuster of a Defense Secretary nominee based on a claim he appears to have pulled out of his ass, that anyone who thought about it for a second would have been a ridiculous premise (a secret fundraising group for terrorists actually using the terrorist organization name in their name). Of course, it wound up being quickly debunked as made up bull shit.
And of course, by doing so Cruz helped cement the idea of the Republican party as the obstructionist party in the minds of Americans , and at the end of the day, was one of the big examples of abuse of the Filibuster used by Harry Reid when he overhauled the filibuster rules.
The second time was equally bullshit. That would be just a few months ago when Ted Cruz shut down the government. It started with a 21 hour speech Cruz pretended was a Filibuster. The idea, a shut down of the government would stop Obamacare from going into effect. The problem? well a shut down only affects discretionary spending, and Obamacare is mandatory spending, and therefore unaffected. All you had to do to know that was have a high school reading level. But still republicans went for it, and when Rebublicans did it, and tried to pass his plan to end the Shutdown in their favor, Cruz stabbed them in the back and basically said he wasnt going to support his own idea, they better find their own way out of this.
And that shutdown is one of the big reasons Republican approval ratings are in the toilet. But again Cruz got what he wanted, he became a Household name, oh and he tricked two million more people into joining a Super PAC that supports him.
So again, seeing Cruz of all people take a stand on "Republicans needing to tell the truth" is very ironic. But then again, he's already proven he will say anything or backstab ANYONE if it will advance his goal of staying famous.
If you dont believe me, just ask the birthers. 6 months ago, they were his biggest supporters and were trying to get support for Cruz to run for President in 2016. At which point, for no apparent reason, and completely spontaneously, Ted Cruz released his birth certificate, which showed he was born in Canada. He also released a statement saying that despite that he was still eligible to run because his mother was a citizen and all you need to be a natural born citizen is a single citizen parent (and for the record, he's right). Which is a bit of a problem, as for 4 1/2 years the birthers had been saying the exact opposite about Obama, that his mother's citizenship DID NOT make him a citizen because he was born in Kenya.
So 6 months ago, the birther golden boy Cruz was revealed to be the walking proof they were lying about Obama , no one has heard from the Birthers since.
With that backstab on his own supporters, Ted Cruz basically eliminated them and ended their movement. All to get his name in the papers for a couple of days.
Which raises the important question, and brings us back to president Bush, given how obvious he is when doing it, how many more times do the GOP and/or the right wing have to get backstabbed by Cruz before they take to heart the message from this song The Who and wont get fooled again?
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