Angry at Ted Cruz, Republicans Should Remeber What He Represents
By Byron York
WashingtonExaminer.com
Republicans have a good chance to win control of
the Senate
this November. Democrats are on the defensive
over
Obamacare, the president is unpopular, and
history suggests second-term mid-terms are nearly
always unlucky for the
White House.
Given that, why is there so much division,
backbiting, and bad blood among some
Senate Republicans? Last seen during the
government shutdown fiasco, the
GOP malady returned this week with a
debt ceiling mini-fiasco, and it threatens to
revisit the Senate any number of times before
Election Day.
There is at least one common thread in the shutdown
and debt ceiling incidents, and that is Sen.
Ted Cruz. For whatever reason, the
Texas freshman has at times goaded his party to
dysfunction, embarrassment, and defeat. (Not quite
singlehandedly; others, like Sens.
Mike Lee and
Rand Paul, have also been done their bit.)
Many in the GOP believe Cruz is just out for
himself. But even if that's true, they have to
remember that he represents more than just Ted Cruz.
There are a lot of Republicans -- it's not clear how
many, but a significant portion of the party's base
-- that cheers Cruz on when he battles with Senate
Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell. They want to see a Republican
throw a wrench in the Washington
spending machine, even if it creates chaos and
damages the GOP's standing with independent voters.
And it is that conviction that is really behind the
party's problems; it is why Republicans would not
enjoy smooth sailing even if Cruz were to retire
tomorrow.
What was remarkable about the brief debt limit fight
is how small the stakes were. Republicans, burned by
recent failures, did not propose to add some huge
fiscal reform -- a restructuring of
entitlements, for example -- to a measure to
raise the debt limit. Instead, they discussed more
modest measures, like reworking the cost-of-living
adjustment for
veterans that was part of the recent bipartisan
budget deal.
When the week began, Senate Republicans expected the
House to attach something small to the debt limit
bill that would be sent to the Senate. They were
taken off guard Tuesday morning when House Speaker
John Boehner announced that wouldn't happen --
that the House, relying on mostly Democratic votes,
would instead pass a bill to raise the debt limit
with no strings attached.
Senate Republicans met in their weekly lunch a few
hours after Boehner's announcement. The short
version of events is that McConnell urged colleagues
to allow a vote on the House debt limit bill. If the
GOP did not object, it could be passed with a simple
51-vote majority, and since there are 55 Democrats
in the Senate who would vote for it, every
Republican could vote against it and it would still
pass. Problem solved; there would be no more default
talk, and Republicans could go back to slamming
Democrats over Obamacare.
Then Cruz stood up and said there was no way in the
world he would stand by and allow a debt ceiling
increase to be passed with just 51 votes. Cruz
insisted on a 60-vote threshold, which the rules
allowed him to do. That meant at least five
Republicans would have to join Democrats for the
debt limit to be raised.
It would be an understatement to say that many of
Cruz's GOP colleagues were righteously ticked off at
him. Nobody wanted to vote to raise the debt limit,
but many believed strongly that a losing fight over
spending would damage the party. Besides, Cruz
didn't even have a plan for what to do had his
Republican colleagues improbably decided to go along
with him.
So after some testy exchanges at the lunch, and a
lot of negotiating in the afternoon, McConnell and
other leaders decided to vote for the debt limit
increase. Then several other Republicans, mostly
those in unthreatened seats, agreed to vote along
with them to provide cover. The bill passed with 12
Republicans joining all 55 Democrats.
Cruz, of course, voted no and accused lawmakers who
voted yes of "not listening to the American people."
He even suggested those who are up for re-election —
a group that very prominently includes McConnell
himself — might soon pay a heavy price. "Sometimes,
come November, the people remember," Cruz said.
In the end, the gambit accomplished nothing for
Senate Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers who already
disliked Cruz now dislike him even more. But the
episode did remind the Republican leadership, as if
it needs any reminding, that there are conservatives
around the country who are deeply frustrated by the
GOP and want it to show some fight.
To them, Cruz represents that fight. Maybe they've
been misled. Maybe they're living in a fantasy land.
But that's what they believe. Republican leaders
have to keep them in mind as November approaches.