Charlie Pierce has a clear idea of what the future could look like. He's been reading CNN's updates on Ted Cruz vs. the crazies in the House.
The House's amateur pols, born 2010, are doing a lovely job of destroying the current edition of the Republican party and -- up to a certain point -- many of us are enjoying the spectacle. The latest thing to upset the newbies is that one of their own, ideologically, has told them to cool it. Ted Cruz gave them the news that they just don't have enough votes to bring down Obamacare.
Whew! That was nasty! As a result, Cruz is now a villain as far as the nuts on the right are concerned. Just as nice or nicer (for the rest of us) is the mention of Texas's rising star, Wendy Davis(D), who may well become a serious rival of Cruz. The two are already neck-and-neck in the amount of media coverage they're getting in their home state. Say "Cruz" and some spoilsport on the left will say "Davis" to the sound of cheers and the raising of Shiner bock bottles.
CNN reports that it was one of the tea partyers who raised the spectre of Davis in connection with Cruz's Obamacare treason.
The reaction from House Republicans and senior GOP leadership aides to Cruz's latest statement on the matter was swift and angry, both about Cruz's lack of confidence in a vote and his urging of the House to "stand firm." "They said nothing is impossible if you fight hard enough, and the minute the House announces the vote, they give up the fight? It's crazy," one senior GOP leadership aide told CNN. "They should walk the walk," the aide said, predicting it would backfire on the conservative senators. Another senior GOP leadership aide took a shot at Cruz declining to say whether he would filibuster the bill, telling CNN, "It is disappointing to see that Wendy Davis has more balls than Ted Cruz," in reference to the state senate Democrat who filibustered an abortion bill in the Texas legislature over the summer. ...Politicker
Back on the national scene, it's the internal party fight stirred up by the tea partyers in the House that's getting the attention. Pierce focuses on the crazies. And the wreckage.
Clearly, what they want is for Cruz to get up and talk and, through his gilded rhetoric, as demonstrated before audiences of enraptured amateur nutballs across the land, get enough Democrats to submarine their own president and give the House Republicans the glorious victory they thought they'd won in the 2010 midterms. There's no reasoning with this kind of thing. We are all merely spectators as the American government is turned by crazy people into Saturday night at a dirt-track speedway in Iowa, and we all sit there and wait for the big pile-up in the far turn. ... CharlesPierce, Daily Politics
