Marco “Thirsty” Rubio did the same thing. Now he’s home watching Fox News while he waits to become eligible to become a lobbyist.
According to GovTrack.us, Cruz has missed 17% of roll call votes in the Senate since he got to Washington in January 2013; that’s more than ten times the career absentee rate (1.6%) among sitting senators. Since January 2016 he’s missed almost every vote.
6 Likes
I wouldn’t complain about it if I were you. If he isn’t in Washington at least he isn’t shutting the government down. Personally, I’d be willing to pay him to stay out of Washington.
7 Likes
The dim bulb opines…
“We’ve had our differences on tactics or how to accomplish those goals, part of it from the fact that I’ve been here a while, and I’m now part of the elected Republican leadership. My goal has always been to figure out how we can advance the conservative cause, even incrementally at times, when I think he’s taken the more immediate shorter-term view of things.”
So, JohnnyC. Does that mean you’re taking responsibility for the gawdawful mess y’all have made?
1 Like
When John Cornyn is more thoughtful than you are, maybe it’s time to revise the loudly insistent belief that you’re the smartest guy in every room.
2 Likes
“Clearly, he didn’t come here to remain in the Senate. He came here to
run for president. And I think that perhaps explains the difference in
tactics,” Cornyn told Texas radio station KERA News while discussing how he differs from Cruz.
…
So Ted comes to the Senate to run for POTUS and spends his time shutting down the government, making enemies and pissing off all his fellow senators by absolutely refusing to compromise and work with the other side to get stuff done. He’s a major asshat and thorn in everyone’s side in that chamber. Shitty tactics if he wants to run for POTUS I say. Not one (well, maybe one) endorsement out of his fellow members is quite telling
3 Likes
Do you think he could work with Hillary? Or vice versa? Personally I see repubs as reprobates. But I’m not in politics.
I love it when goofballs attack one another. It’s a damned laff riot!!
No, Cornyn could absolutely not work with Hillary. I wasn’t talking about the Presidential general, I meant the 2018 election when Cruz is up for re-election. I really believe that Cornyn will try to take out Cruz in the primaries. But failing that, if the Democrats put up a halfway decent candidate like Bill White, Cornyn might be willing to choose to not implement his machine for Cruz. He might not help the democrat beat Cruz, but I could see him choosing not to help Cruz either. That would be huge.
3 Likes
Well I guess it’s an OK tactic if you need to win redstate GOPer primaries, where 5% of the national electorate dictates who’s losing, uglyass face is going to be plastered everywhere for the next year.
2 Likes
…or for a lobbyist job.
Bear in mind that Cruz got into the Senate in the first place by defeating the Texas Republican Party and its establishment candidate, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Dewhurst’s replacement was a radio-station owner and Tea Party radical also despised by the establishment. The Perry-Cornyn machine is vulnerable.
1 Like
Abbott did finally back Cruz - but I can easily believe he doesn’t like him. Cruz worked on the 2000 election - Abbott had already been elected AG (replacing Cornyn). Abbott did appoint him to a position when Cruz didn’t get the General Counsel to the POTUS (he was offered a deputy position but it wasn’t good enough for him) maybe as a bone for his help stealing the election. Cruz did not wait his turn like “good ole Texas GOOPers” are supposed to–Rick Perry’s long tenure as guv held up a lot of ambitious Republicans. However, the GOP courted the Tea Party whackadoodles, so I don’t know what they expected.
1 Like
I agree with you, but Cruz didn’t run against the Cornyn machine, because as you recall, it was just common knowledge that Dewhurst was going to be the nominee. Even Cruz didn’t expect to be the nominee. He was mainly running to improve his statewide name recognition for when he ran for the vacated AG position in 2014 when Abbott was expected to run for Governor. It was so accepted that Dewhurst was the nominee, they never even bothered polling the race. When the first poll came in only a couple weeks before the primary, everyone was surprised. So Cornyn’s machine was not really activated for the primaries.
Of course it was activated for the 2012 general, but at that point, I don’t think Cornyn had a feel for how much of an ass Cruz was. So Cruz benefited from the machine in 2012. I think that if Cornyn fully turned his people against Cruz, Cruz would struggle to defeat it. Cruz has not bothered setting up his own machine here in Texas. He is relying on Cornyn being there for him in 2018 (plus, he is a little busy right now). If I were a betting man, I would give Cruz no better than even money to be in the Senate in 2019. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
2 Likes
Rachel Maddow did a 20 minute history lesson/ expose how he maneuvered and was elected in the Senate pimary with 632,000 votes and was a shoo in in the Senate race
Ted Cruz was chosen to be the next junior senator in Texas by less than 4 percent of the eligible voting population by virtue of winning his low-turnout (under 12%) Republican primary. This is a fact about almost all primary elections today that is often missed by media talking heads and politicos.
Here is a written account:
http://ivn.us/2015/03/24/ted-cruz-won-senate-seat-just-632000-votes-state-27-million/
Worth watching if you have time
3 Likes
“My goal has always been to figure out how we can advance the conservative cause, even incrementally at times, when I think he’s taken the more immediate shorter-term view of things.”
A current glimpse at the debate within the current GOP: Cruz wants to destroy the country immediately and all at once, while Cornyn advocates doing it only bit by bit.
2 Likes
Oh, please.
I loathe Cruz as much as the next person, but is Cornyn really pretending that every other senator doesn’t want to be President?