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Report: Ted Cruz could ride Tea Party support to White House

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photo credit: gage skidmoreThe friendly fire directed at Sen. Ted Cruz from establishment Republicans is giving the Texan first-in-line status among Tea Party supporters and building a base for him to run for president, according to a new analysis from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

“To the establishment, Cruz is the embodiment of all the forces conspiring to threaten the GOP’s long-term viability. And, on a personal level, they also just can’t stand Cruz: He drives them crazy,” wrote Kyle Kondik in Center Director Larry Sabato’s popular Crystal Ball.

But, added Kondik, the “venom” directed at Cruz, whose effort to defund Obamacare led to a 16-day government shutdown, makes him an oversized hero to Tea Party supporters.

“Not pleasing the establishment is music to the ears of Tea Party activists, and if anything the shutdown has endeared Cruz even more to them. Assuming Cruz mounts a presidential bid in 2016 — he’s headed to South Carolina next week after his Iowa appearance last Friday (hint, hint) — the Tea Party could be a potent base,” he said.

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Ted Cruz Explains to Trayvon Martin’s Mother How ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Help Protect the Black Community (+video)

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Photo Credit: C-SPANSen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) came face-to-face with Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, on Capitol Hill during a Tuesday hearing on “Stand Your Ground” laws. After offering his condolences to Fulton, Cruz told the mother that the self-defense laws are not racist because they help blacks as much as whites, if not more.

Cruz also explained that, despite some efforts to exploit Martin’s death, George Zimmerman’s defense team never used Stand Your Ground laws as a defense in the murder trial.

“We know that some in our political process have a desire to exploit that tragic, violent incident for agendas that have nothing to do with that young man who lost his life. We have seen efforts to undermine the verdict of the jury and, more broadly, to inflame racial tensions that I think are sad and irresponsible,” the Texas senator added.

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Sean Penn: ‘I Think It’s A Good Idea’ to Have Ted Cruz Committed (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP“There’s a mental health problem in Congress,” says actor and liberal activist Sean Penn. The president could solve the problem “by committing them by executive order,” Penn told CNN’s Piers Morgan Monday night.

Asked if Penn would have “people like Ted Cruz” committed, Penn said, “He is my American brother. I won’t — I think we should take care of him, he is in, he’s the trouble.”

“Well, actually have him committed,” Morgan followed up.

“Yeah, I think it’s a good idea,” Penn said.

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Ted Cruz to Iowa Republicans: This Fight is ‘Path to Victory’

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreRepublican Senator Ted Cruz, who incited a standoff over Obamacare culminating in a 16-day U.S. government shutdown, told party activists in Iowa that fighting the health law will pay dividends in the 2014 midterm elections.

The junior senator from Texas, just nine months in office, won a warm reception during a 45-minute speech last night in which he said that his attempt to defund President Barack Obama’s signature health-care program has made a difference, even if it has cost his party in the polls.

“Collectively, we accomplished a great deal,” Cruz told about 600 Republican activists at a downtown convention hall in Des Moines. “We elevated the national debate over what a disaster, what a train-wreck, how much Obamacare is hurting millions of Americans.”

He told the party faithful the prescription for unifying the GOP in the wake of the bitter congressional battle that triggered the shutdown was to ignore both the media and Washington strategists.

“This fight is worth it,” he said. “It is the path to victory.”

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Did MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Use ‘KKK’ Image for Cruz, Paul, Rubio? (+video)

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s All In, has a favorite tactic–though not an original one: connecting today’s Republicans with the racist Democrats of the old South. In June, he rewrote history by casting George Wallace as a Republican–an error for which, to his credit, he later apologized. On Wednesday, he appeared to use a more subtle tactic to connect the Tea Party’s Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio to the Ku Klux Klan.

In a segment on possible Tea Party contenders for the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2016 presidential race, Hayes used a graphic (above) that portrayed Cruz, Paul, and Rubio as kings in a deck of cards–and that, rather conveniently, spelled out the initials “K K K.” (Hayes did not say the word “kings” during the segment.)

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Ted Cruz: GOP’ers Who Want To Implement Obamacare Want to See ‘The American People Suffer’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: CNN Screen Shot By Noah Rothman.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning where reporter Dana Bash questioned him about the efficacy of his position on the government shutdown over the Affordable Care Act. Cruz said that those Republicans who want to implement the ACA and hasten its collapse are misguided.

Bash asked Cruz if he believed that Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sibelius should resign. Cruz replied that he believed she should. Bash questioned him about the politics of that. She asked, if Sebelius is such a liability for the Obama administration, whether Republicans benefit more from her remaining in her position.

“There are Republican gray beards that make the point, ‘Let’s let this collapse,’” he said.

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Cruz: I don’t work for party bosses

By Lucy Mccalmont.

Sen. Ted Cruz says he’s not bothered by the tensions and anger from his Republican colleagues over his strategy to defund Obamacare, saying he doesn’t work for “party bosses.”

“Not remotely, because the people I work for are the women and men and men you just saw. I work for 26 million Texans. That’s my job to fight for them. I don’t work for the party bosses in Washington. I work for the people of Texas and I fight for them,” Cruz said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The freshman Republican from Texas also took a shot at his Republican colleagues, whom he said would commented “very differently” if cameras were inside their closed-door meetings.

“You know what was very interesting about some of those closed-door discussions? What I said in those closed-door discussions, I would’ve said the exact same thing if CNN”s camera was sitting in the room. What I say privately to my colleagues is the same thing I say publicly,” Cruz said.

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The Great Eclipse: Rubio or Cruz?

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Photo Credit: National Review Senator Marco Rubio began this year amid buzz that he was the logical choice to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. He is likely to finish it on a decidedly lower note, partly removed from the national spotlight, eclipsed by the rising star from Texas, Ted Cruz.

Last week, attendees at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., overwhelmingly chose Cruz as their preferred GOP candidate for 2016. The freshman senator blew away the competition with 42 percent of the vote. Rubio, meanwhile, placed fifth, behind Senator Rand Paul, political novice Dr. Ben Carson, and unsuccessful 2012 candidate Rick Santorum. Granted, fewer than 1,000 people took part in the survey, but the results reinforce what has become obvious to political observers: Ted Cruz is the undisputed darling of the Right, and Rubio’s stock has fallen considerably.

Rubio had been making all the moves one might expect of a leading 2016 candidate. He delivered a major speech in Iowa just days after the 2012 election, accepted the Jack Kemp Foundation’s Leadership Award in December, and gave the Republican response to the State of the Union address in February.

“Everyone wants to see him succeed,” a senior GOP aide told National Review Online in January, which was right around the time that Rubio joined the so-called Gang of Eight, which led the effort in the Senate to pass a comprehensive immigration-reform bill.

Rubio’s credibility with the conservative base proved critical to the legislation’s eventual passage. His status as a rising star within the GOP — and conventional wisdom about the GOP’s demoralizing defeat in the 2012 presidential race — earned the Gang of Eight a fair hearing from right-wing heavyweights such as Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Sean Hannity. Rubio’s “ideological pause,” in the words of one aide, helped the bill gather steam by blunting the early opposition from the right.

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U.S. Senator Cruz Blocks Confirmation of New FCC Chairman

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstRepublican Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative whose defiant stand against Obamacare helped prompt the U.S. government shutdown, has blocked the Senate from voting on the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be Federal Communications Commission chairman.

The Senate was scheduled to vote on Wheeler, a Democrat and telecom industry veteran, late on Wednesday. Cruz held up the vote over questions about the FCC’s power to enforce disclosures of who sponsors political television advertising.

“The Senator is holding the nominee until he gets answers to his questions regarding Mr. Wheeler’s views on whether the FCC has the authority or intent to implement the requirements of the failed Congressional DISCLOSE Act,” said Cruz spokesman Sean Rushton, referring to a failed bill meant to step up political disclosures.

“Mr. Wheeler had previously declined to give specific answers, but as he’s now expressed his readiness to revisit the Senator’s questions, the Senator hopes to communicate with him soon,” Rushton said.

If Wheeler cannot resolve Cruz’s concerns, Senate Democrats could force a vote on the nomination. Majority Leader Harry Reid would decided whether to take that action.

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Cruz, Lee, Palin Speak at WWII Memorial – Protestors Tear Down Barricades (+video)

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A crowd converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, pushing through barriers Sunday morning to protest the memorial’s closing under the government shutdown.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were among those who gathered Sunday morning, along with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, according to WTOP radio. Cruz said President Obama is using veterans as pawns in the shutdown.

“Tear down these walls,” the crowd chanted. Protesters also sang God Bless America and other patriotic songs as they entered the memorial plaza.

The memorial has become a political symbol in the bitter fight between Democrats and Republicans over who is at fault since the shutdown began. Earlier rallies have focused on allowing access for World War II veterans visiting from across the country with the Honor Flight Network.

Sunday’s rally was more political. A protest by truckers converged with a rally by a group called the Million Vet March at the World War II Memorial. Participants cut the links between metal barriers at the National Park Service site and pushed them aside.

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Cruz Slams Immigration Hecklers: ‘They Don’t Want the Truth to be Heard’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: ReutersIllegal immigrant advocates interrupted Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech to the Values Voters Summit on Friday more than a half-dozen times, calling on the Texas Republican and potential presidential candidate to support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

But the Texas Republican repeatedly deflected the criticism, turning it into an attack against President Obama.

“How scared is the president?” Mr. Cruz said. “Oh, they don’t want the truth to be heard. They definitely don’t want the truth to be heard.”

The crowd also tried to drown out the protestors with chants of “USA! USA!”

The protesters were dragged out by security guards.

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