Rand Paul: Cruz ‘can’t get anything done’

Last month, Cruz said on the Senate floor that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had lied to him.

Host Brian Kilmeade asked Paul about a specific event, where Republicans snubbed Cruz by not allowing him the courtesy of a roll call vote. “What does denying a second mean?”

Cruz, shot down, let out a deep sigh. Ted Cruz’s tactics aren’t popular with his Senate Republican colleagues. The frustration is not simply mild or passing or ephemeral. But, unlike Rubio, Cruz rightly intuited that the Obama playbook, which was only eight years old, was already outdated. “Over and over again, the American people go to the ballot box, over and over again, the American people rise up and say the direction we’re going doesn’t make sense”. McConnell beat national liberal opposition to win landslide reelection and achieved his longtime ambition to lead the Senate. In 2010, a tidal wave election. Both Cruz and Paul have issues with Republican leadership.

In 2010, we were told that Republicans would stand and fight if only we had a Republican House. Cruz is “done for” in the Senate. “Unfortunately, leadership on my side of the aisle does not demonstrate the same commitment to principles”.

Which is where Ted Cruz comes in. “And that’s not a way to successfully promote our goals”, Cornyn said.

Oh wait. That’s from October 2014 – before Republicans won control of the Senate and Cruz became a formidable candidate for president.

“He is pretty much done for and stifled, and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships”.

Paul said he was “still just as hardcore” in taking on the establishment as Cruz, but has declined to call colleagues names. Cruz is using his rivalry with GOP leaders like McConnell and Boehner, R-Ohio, as a way to define himself for conservative voters who dominate the GOP presidential primary electorate.

– Donald Trump discussing his thoughts on President Obama’s leadership compared to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s. Sure, and there’s nothing wrong with being annoyed with an ally for not showing as much support you’d like. Cruz very unsubtly moved to stamp out the competition for this voting bloc with a campaign video that features this group recalling their fondness for Ron Paul and discussing how Cruz embodies his libertarian ethos. But the more moderate Republicans detest his attitude – and a few question his motives. His read of the political moment is that it’s no longer enough not to get anything done in Washington; it’s now necessary to be seen as actively trying not to get anything done.

“I’m an alumnus of the U.S. Department of Justice”, he said.

Additional bad news broke via a report in The Washington Examiner – which concluded that Cruz was making major inroads with Paul’s base of supporters. “It’s not good for society. I don’t like it. I don’t think what he’s doing is helpful at all“.

“During the last government shutdown, I repeatedly asked you what your strategy for success was… but I did not receive an answer”, she wrote. Y’all come to town and somehow that changes. That’s where the Republican donors are.

“If voters are looking for a broad-spectrum conservative who’s well funded and articulate, there’s no one whose competing in these lanes in any significant way”, he said. “Because the people writing the checks agree with the Democrats“. Don’t they have a real tea party in Kentucky?

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was born in Midland, U.S. Sen. Along the way, Cruz made several pop culture references – the Sunday night lunar eclipse, the movie “The Terminator” and the novel “Brave New World” – not an altogether unimaginable departure from his marathon 2013 speech two years ago which included a reading of “Green Eggs and Ham”.