Ted Cruz In The Driver's Seat-- Miss McConnell Strikes Back!

Friday morning, the political class was chattering about Jonathan Martin's NY Times piece, GOP Elders See Liabilities In Shutdown, but not because Bob Dole, Haley Barber, Ed Gillespie or George H.W. Bush is warning House Republicans away from their lunatic lurch over the cliff. The theme that had the Beltway running around in full gossip mode was an account of a Senate Republican luncheon on Wednesday in which Ted Cruz got his ass wailed on by the rest of the caucus.

And on Wednesday at a private luncheon, several Senate Republicans-- Dan Coats of Indiana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire-- assailed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has led the movement to block funding for the health law.

Ms. Ayotte was especially furious, according to two people present, and waved a printout from a conservative group friendly to Mr. Cruz attacking 25 of his fellow Republican senators for supporting a procedural vote that the group counted as support of the health law.

Ms. Ayotte asked Mr. Cruz to disavow the group’s effort and demanded he explain his strategy. When he did not, several other senators-- including Mr. Johnson, Mr. Coats and even Mitch McConnell, the minority leader-- joined in the criticism of Mr. Cruz. [One senator claims Cruz dug in and said, "I will not," enraging practically everyone in the room.]

“It just started a lynch mob,” said a senator who was present.

Despite the uproar, Mr. Cruz did not offer a plan for how his party could prevail in the shutdown battle and suggested his colleagues were defeatists.

Politico interviewed several senators present off the record and reports that one said, “It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy-- he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was,” said one senator who attended the meeting. “I just wish the 35 House members that have bought the snake oil that was sold could witness what was witnessed today at lunch… “He kept trying to change the subject because he never could answer the question. It’s pretty evident it’s never been about a strategy-- it’s been about him. That’s unfortunate. I think he’s done our country a major disservice. I think he’s done Republicans a major disservice.”

Cruz and his allies in the House and in the far right Koch-funded outside groups like DeMint's very divisive Senate Conservatives Fund are getting the blame for the government shutdown and the national anger rebounding on Republicans. That Boehner is too weak to control the House and that McConnell is too preoccupied with a difficult reelection campaign, makes it look like the GOP is in total disaray. Republican congressmembers in deep red districts have no worries but a couple dozen Republicans in swing districts could have their careers in jeopardy and the GOP's shot of taking back the Senate is quickly dwindling. In Montana, for example, freshman Rep. Steve Daines is the likely GOP candidate and he will likely spend the whole campaign defending his record of voting to shut down the government, which polls poorly in Montana. Republicans are circulating this video of Cruz's fact-free, deranged father to help people understand why Cruz is the way he is:




UPDATE: Cruz Control

This morning's NY Times quotes frustrated California congressman (with statewide ambitions), Devin Nunes casting blame for the current crisis on Cruz.

Asked what the House was doing, Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California and a Boehner loyalist, said: “You really have to call Cruz, I’m not even joking about that. That’s really what you have to do, because he’s the one that set up the strategy, he’s the one that got us into this mess, and so we’ve got to know what the next move is.”