Why exactly is Cruz getting all the heat?

[vi5]

Make no mistake the guy is a tool and a lunatic. But at this point isn't he pretty much inconsequential? I mean he's in the Senate which passed a clean bill. At this point isn't this entire thing on Boehner's shoulders? Why am I reading all these stories about Republicans beating up on Cruz and blaming him. Doesn't he not have anything to do with anything any more after he did his little speech stunt?

The house is the only thing standing in the way, and there are enough votes and Boehner is just not allowing an up or down clean vote. What am I missing? Is it just that Cruz is an easier target because he's new and he pulled his stunt a week or two back?

[RandiFan1290]

1. A cute little game to give publicons cover

and blame it all on the mythical "tea party"

[cali]

4. It's not mythical. Created by the brothers Koch, but real enough

I suggest reading Lizza's article published in the New Yorker last week.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/09/meadows-boehner-defund-obamacare-suicide-caucus-geography.html

[Coyotl]

27. Here is who should be getting all the heat right now:

[cali]

2. whoa. no, you are wildly wrong.

Make no mistake, Cruz is the architect of this shut down and he's meeting regularly with House members. In many ways, he's the face and voice of the shutdown.

[el_bryanto]

18. I think this is completely correct

It also points to the fact that the Republicans are basically leaderless - that was evident in the campaign of the colorless Romney, a candidate nobody seemed to like all that much (even his supporters weren't enthusiastic). And it's more evident now; 2 out 3 Republicans probably knows this won't work to get rid of the ACA and it's a disaster politically - but there's nobody big enough to stop it.

Bryant

[vi5]

20. I don't disagree he bears much blame.

But Boehner could end this right now.

Cruz may have been the architect, and may be pulling the strings on the house hardliners.

But boehner is ultimately the one who could end this, not Cruz.

[cali]

28. absolutely. hey, I think bonehead should get his fair shame of blame- as in

a lot of it. I was just pointing out the significant role that Craphead Cruz is playing.

[Berlum]

3. Cruz's daddy runs the "Purifying Fire" evangelical propaganda money pit, or something like that

So "The Annointed One" (what Cruz's daddy calls him),
is kind of a naturally incendiary creature,
Soul-Scorching Brimstone Style.

[Heather MC]

5. Because in the end blaming a Jr. Senator who Just got the job is safer

than blaming old established Washington insider republicans who should know better than to destroy the country for Ego Purposes and fund raising money. Besides Ted Cruz is an Ass hole

[cali]

7. No. people really need to inform themselves.

Cruz is influential and he is one of the architects of this shutdown. It has zip to do with what you're claiming.

Cruz looms large in this government shutdown drama. He's the one who spent the August recess campaigning for Republicans to insist on tying funding for the government to defunding the health care law.

On Monday night, just hours before the shutdown began, Cruz appeared on CNN and suggested the House take up smaller spending bills — one at a time — to fund bits and pieces of the government.

"We should pick the top, the critical priorities, the areas where, if the Democrats force a shutdown, the areas where there'll be the most pain, and let's address that — let's take them off the table," he said. "I think the House tonight ought to pass several continuing resolutions."

The House didn't do it that night, but by Tuesday afternoon, three such bills were on the House floor — ones that would fund Veterans Affairs, the Washington, D.C., local government, and the national parks.

<snip>

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/02/228376346/why-sen-cruz-looms-large-in-government-shutdown-drama

[Heather MC]

13. Forgive me I left off the

tag won't happen again

[BlueStreak]

23. Actually I think your original comments were pretty accurate

Ted Cruz didn't create this situation. He is just trying to exploit it for his own Presidential aspirations. If ambition is a sin, they are all guilty. You can't get mad at a Senator for grandstanding when the opportunity presents itself. That's what they do.

The underlying problems are the result of a small minority party trying to cobble together enough of the stupid, the religious, the racists, the crazy, the gun nuts, and the paranoid to win some elections. It is blowing up on them now because in the end, that means you have a lot of stupid, religious, racist, crazy, paranoid people on your side.

[KittyWampus]

25. you need to see the hand up Cruz's butt. It's Norquist and the ole strategy of killing gvt.

E. Klein wrote an interview w/Norquist who now tries to blame this on Cruz.

Norquist's strategy, as he tells it to Klein, is in the article-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023779724

[cali]

29. baloney- and I read the Klein interview with grubby grover yesterday.

there is no hand up cruz' butt. this guy is freelancing.

[randome]

6. I can't stress this enough: no one is in charge of the GOP.

None of them understand what they are getting out of this. The shutdown is like some subconscious daydream that popped out into the real world.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[cali]

8. I can't stress this enough. Ted Cruz is directing this disaster

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/02/228376346/why-sen-cruz-looms-large-in-government-shutdown-drama

[randome]

10. Yet he has no end game. No strategy past the initial shutdown.

Most of the GOP hates him. That's not a leader. It's his daydream that has been given a boost into reality but they all share it so it shuffles forward until enough Republicans revolt.

That's how this will end.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[cali]

11. Sure he has an end game: His run for the presidency in 2016

that's what this is all about.

and yes, he's now on top of the 2016 repuke polls.

[randome]

16. Then he's guilty of premature delusions. 2016 is too far away.

He has poisoned the GOP brand in the meantime. Once the rest of the GOP turn on him, he will be finished.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[winter is coming]

21. Hence the phrase "blind ambition".

The Koch brothers needed a new face to lead the charge on extremist bullshit and be a rising star of the Republicans. Apparently, Cruz didn't pause to reflect on the brief half-life of rising stars in today's GOP. He may toss his hat in the ring in 2016, but he won't get the nomination.

[Trekologer]

15. This. The GOP has a vacuum of leadership

But that shouldn't leave the rank-and-file off the hook for following Cruz. They knew he had no end-game plan but blindly followed him anyway. That says more about them than anything else. If they should be angry at anyone, it should be themselves for that blind following.

[randome]

17. "But Cruz made us do it!"

{Cue whiny baby sound.}
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[leftynyc]

9. Because right now

he's sitting on top of the polls for the 2016 republican candidacy. The old guard knows what a colossal disaster that would be for the party so they're going to destroy him before we have a chance to.

[LaydeeBug]

12. because he is calling all the shots. nt

[Nine]

14. I agree with you and the first post.

Whatever's happening with Republicans behind the scenes, no one is holding a gun to Boehner's head. Republicans would love to pin the blame for this on as few of their ranks as possible, and on one guy all the better, but we shouldn't let them get away with that.

[jsr]

19. He made himself their leader

“I think Ted Cruz is the new standard-bearer for constitutional conservatism, with Rand Paul being a slightly more libertarian version of that.” - Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks

[BlueStreak]

22. Because he is jockeying for a Presidential run, so his colleagues want to take him down

Karl Rove is behind a lot of the animus toward Cruz.

[KittyWampus]

24. Because pointing to Grover Norquist is getting too close to the real hand holding the stick?

easier to demonize Cruz, especially if others want to run for POTUS

[blogslut]

26. Because Cruz has been advising members of the House on the Budget Resolution

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/359717/cruz-house-conservatives-oppose-boehner-robert-costa

On a Thursday conference call, a group of House conservatives consulted with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas about how to respond to the leadership’s fiscal strategy. Sources who were on the call say Cruz strongly advised them to oppose it, and hours later, Speaker John Boehner’s plan fizzled.

It’s the latest example of Cruz leading the House’s right flank.

The private call came together after Boehner unveiled his strategy at a Republican conference meeting earlier this week. Boehner’s plan — to focus on a debt-limit package, rather than a drawn-out CR battle — made many conservatives uneasy. As they mulled a response, they reached out to Cruz.

On the call, Cruz told them that Boehner was making a mistake, and urged his friends to fight until the end on the CR. The group agreed, and they complained that Boehner’s shift to the debt limit was a diversion. Senator Mike Lee of Utah joined Cruz on the call, and both senators said they’d stand with House conservatives as they opposed the leadership.

By the call’s end, there was a consensus: until the CR talks are complete, Republicans should whip “no” on Boehner’s debt-limit plan, as a way of preventing the leadership from directing the strategy. And that’s exactly what happened late Thursday afternoon: GOP whip Kevin McCarthy worked the floor, but couldn’t find the votes for Boehner’s debt-limit plan. After McCarthy reported back about the Cruz-inspired uprising, the leadership shelved it...

Pardon the source but, in this instance, The NROnline has nothing to lose by making up facts.

Don't get me wrong. They're all obstinate, selfish children but Cruz has been acting as lead whinybaby on this.

[blm]

30. Because he's the acting Speaker of the House Rafael 'Ted' Cruz.

.