The Only Republicans Who Don't Hate Ted Cruz Are On His Payroll

Tim Murphy and David Corn penned an article for Mother Jones that explains why people who know him and work with him think of him as a "pompous asshole or, worse yet, a backpfeifengesicht-- a German word that indicates someone has a face that needs to be pounded into hamburger. You don't have to take Trumpf's worthless word that no one like Ted Cruz.

A prominent aide to George W. Bush's 2000 campaign could barely contain himself when we asked him to discuss Cruz, who worked in the campaign's policy shop. This person described Cruz as hyper-arrogant and widely despised, and he emphasized-- over and over-- that the pervasive dislike of Cruz within the Bush ranks had nothing to do with ideology. (Cruz, he noted, never objected to Bush's call for compassionate conservatism, immigration reform, and national education standards, and no one on the campaign regarded him as an ideologue.) The problem was simple: his personality.

"Ted thought he was an expert on everything," says this campaign veteran, who asked not to be named. "He was a smart and talented guy, but completely taken with himself and his own ideas. He would offer up opinions on everything, even matters outside his portfolio. He was a policy guy, but he would push his ideas on campaign strategy. He would send memos on everything to everyone. He would come to meetings where he wasn't invited-- and wasn't wanted." In fact, this Bush alum recalls, "the quickest way for a meeting to end would be for Ted to come in. People would want out of that meeting. People wouldn't go to a meeting if they knew he would be there. It was his inability to be part of the team. That's exactly what he was: a big asshole."

The Bush vet goes on: "I don't know anyone who had a decent relationship with Cruz." And when Bush became president, his top campaign aides agreed Cruz should not be offered a job in the White House. "No one wanted to work with him," this source remembers. "George W. Bush couldn't stand the guy." This person adds, "It's a real quandary for Bush campaign people: Trump versus Cruz, who to vote for? And it would be a big quandary even if it's Cruz versus Hillary Clinton. That's how much they cannot stand him."

And they included Cruz verdicts from other Republicans:

George W. Bush said doesn't like Cruz and John Boehner called him a "false prophet" and publicly referred to him as "that jackass." Peter King said he'd jump off a bridge if he had to vote for Cruz and called him a "carnival barker and a "counterfeit" with "no qualifications" who appeals "to the lowest common denominator," and "just a guy with a big mouth and no results." To Lindsey Graham he's "an opportunist" who "has done more to allow ISIL to gain a foothold in Syria than any senator other than Rand Paul" and said the GOP would be better off if it picked "somebody out of the phone book." Bob Dole has pointed out that "Nobody likes him... He doesn't have any friends in Congress. He called the leader of the Republicans a liar on the Senate floor. If you want to call somebody a liar in the Senate, you go to their office-- you don't go on the Senate floor and make it public."



David Sawyer is a tweeter, who earned $20,000/year as a Cruz congressional regional director but now serves as a low level Cruz for President political director. His main jobs seem to be trying to get people on twitter to refer to Herr Trumpf as "Donald Duck" and retweeting Cruz Rapid Response Director Brian Phillips. And yesterday Sawyer and Phillips had a blast celebrating Ted Cruz challenging Donald Duck to a mano-a-mano debate.