The ongoing feud between the tea party and establishment factions in Congress can be likened to spot fires which opportunistically flare up whenever an issue divides them. Whenever and wherever there's a flare, you'll find Senator Ted Cruz with his outsized set of bellows fanning the flames, always behind the scenes, always denying any connection yet always conspicuously there and it’s particularly noticeable when there doesn't involve fellow senators but is a crucial meeting of House tea partiers.
He first came to public prominence in 2013 when identified as being at the core of the maelstrom that was the government shutdown. His part in that disastrous PR stunt made him a tea party hero but put him at odds with the Republican establishment, particularly Mitch McConnell and John Boehner.
Without any understanding of Cruz's extreme psychopathy, they thought to tame him by appointing him vice chair of the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee). That was short-lived. Cruz objected to the NRSC's involvement in primaries (ie, they backed establishment candidates against tea party opponents) and effectively boycotted his own committee. They'd wanted to get rid of him but he wouldn't resign. When setting up the NRSC no-one considered this eventuality, so no-one knew how to get rid of him. In the end they tolerated his insubordination then promptly moved him to the chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness at the beginning of 114th Congress in hopes that this will contain him. It won't.
While Cruz's antagonistic attitude is well-known, his actions are unpredictable and often take the establishment by surprise. Therein lies the power of this freshman senator over the long-toothed establishment. They've never seen anyone quite like him. In their experience, freshmen fall into line fairly quickly and are easily controlled by the leadership (‘leadership’ here meaning anyone who has two terms or more under their political beltway). But not Cruz. Nor does he confine himself to the Senate chambers – in fact his greatest power has been, and for the moment continues to be, in the House.
His influence there certainly isn't welcomed by Speaker John Boehner whose carefully-laid plans and vote-gathering have been scuttled by Cruz on more than one occasion.
As Salon reported:
“Cruzification” is what happens when the House Republican leadership is prepared to make a relatively realistic opening offer to counter a Senate Democratic proposal, but then Sen. Ted Cruz (you guessed it!) perambulates over to the House side and demands that conservatives there rise up in defiance. Conference support for the opening offer collapses, the leadership is forced to introduce a more right-wing version, and stalemate endures.
This is how one freshman senator has been able to sabotage key legislation including immigration reform. That issue wasn't just pitting the tea party caucus against the establishment faction; it was also setting the Chamber of Commerce against Heritage Action. As HA's star Congressman, Cruz's ploy to divide and conquer not only effectively buried immigration reform for the foreseeable future but also dealt a huge blow to the Chamber of Commerce which supports Boehner and McConnell.
He has House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's number too. That was painfully obvious when McCarthy tapped Reps Steve King and Michele Bachmann, chief among Cruz's acolytes, to rewrite the border bill overnight on the last scheduled day before the Summer break last year. What a disaster that was! Even the Wall Street Journal produced a scathing op-ed which labeled House Republicans the "Deportation Caucus".
How Cruz has been able to assemble this group of the faithful is no mystery. His egotistic conceit and devious nature make for easy dominance over his credulous followers. It's distinctly ironic too that the fear-mongering, distortion and disinformation that Republicans sell wholesale to their base also work so effectively on them, especially when manipulated by Cruz. They've swallowed their own propaganda whole and are now victims of it.
Cruz is a first class scam artist and he's selling his snake-oil to tea partiers who can't get enough of it. Cruz knows this and takes full advantage of them. He's set himself up not only as their leader but as their preacher. In his senate office, he holds regular 'fellowship' meetings punctuated with group-singing of “Kumbaya”. It isn't hard to imagine the effect this has on his theocracy-obsessed followers.
His latest fire-raising is an attack on the Republican Study Committee. Set up by extreme conservatives to unify and thereby strengthen their influence on party leaders, that original intention was effectively nullified when party leaders themselves joined the RSC. From being exclusive, the RSC now boasts a majority of the GOP conference in its membership and though that includes tea partiers, in reality it remains a bastion of the establishment faction.
Tea partiers are not happy. They're lamenting that the RSC has strayed too far from its original purpose and has become ineffective. In his Salon article, Jim Newell's response to this was:
The Republican Study Committee, though now deemed ineffectual by the real conservatives, is no joke. It produces its own budget resolution each year, for example. And in recent years it’s the one they’ve brought up as the real conservative alternative to the Ryan Budget, which they deem insufficiently sadistic. That the size of the RSC has blossomed in recent Congresses doesn’t mean it’s somehow loosened its conservative principles; it’s more that the House Republican conference itself has shifted dramatically to the right.
But you can never go far enough to the right for some.
Enter Ted Cruz. In addition to his opposition to all things establishment, Cruz has his own issues with the RSC. Last year they failed to elect Rep. Mick Mulvaney as chairman thereby compounding their sin of the year when they fired Cruz's chief of staff, Paul Teller, from his role as RSC executive director. You can bet Cruz has been brooding about that for some time and passing on his chagrin to his faithful acolytes.
Cruz's cadre is none too bright but they did finally get the hint. As the National Journal reported:
House conservatives are plotting a mass exodus from the Republican Study Committee as soon as next week over simmering dissatisfaction with the group's direction.
The members have been talking for weeks, and they met Monday night to formalize their plans to institutionalize a competing, invitation-only organization that they see as a real conservative caucus that can push Speaker John Boehner rightward.
Jim Newell responded to this report with:
– as if John Boehner doesn't already pursue the furthest possible rightward post he can take without permanently shutting down the government or arbitrarily destroying the nation's credit/global economy –
With Cruz involved, it's more likely designed to push John Boehner rightward over the nearest cliff. How do we know Cruz
is involved? There are two clues in this sentence highlighted by
Crooks and Liars when they quoted the
National Journal report:
Many of the members will meet Tuesday evening with Sen. Ted Cruz to discuss their plans and other matters over pizza, though Cruz himself has not been involved in the formation of the new group.
Uh huh. Clue one: Cruz was there and he has a personal interest in this. Clue two: Cruz says he's not involved just as he's said he's not involved in influencing House members to change their vote overnight after a 'fellowship meeting' in his senate office. Are you buying this
Crooks and Liars?
Let's just call this the John Birch Reactionary Society, shall we? And I call bullshit on Ted Cruz not being involved. He's involved in everything.
Of course he's involved. Whenever there's smoke in the Republican Congress, you'll find Cruz with his bellows fanning the flames. It's no coincidence that at least one of the Cruz cadre acolytes, Rep John Fleming, is among the founders of the new group.
There's also a third clue, found in the answer to this question: why did House tea partiers rally to Cruz's cause? It's because they couldn't organize themselves. They were just a bunch of loose balloons, filled with hot air, randomly bouncing off one another. There was no leadership, no planning, just lots of free-wheeling impotent angst. They were ripe for the picking; in search of a Cruz-ader to unify them and tell them what to think and do. For the same reasons, they would have needed guidance in organizing their super but not-so-secret society; it's stretching credulity to breaking point to believe they could have managed it on their own.
So what do we know about this group? The National Journal reports:
The new group, which does not yet have a name but is expected to include more than 30 members, is being de-facto led by former RSC Chairman Jim Jordan, although the formal leadership structure could change. It will also include Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who lost an election to become the chairman last year, disappointing many conservatives. The other founders are Reps. Justin Amash, Ron DeSantis, John Fleming, Scott Garrett, Raul Labrador, Mark Meadows, and Matt Salmon. Most but not all of those members are expected to renounce their RSC memberships, along with other members who will join the group.
The super exclusive invitation-only club is organizing a retreat sometime in the next couple of months to plan their agenda. No doubt Cruz will be there as special guest or plenary speaker or some VIP capacity. Whatever his nominal status, in reality he will be shepherding the group to embrace his personal political platform. Cruz is in it for Cruz and always has been.
The bellows fiercely fan the flames to burn out the corruption. But it does not purify them, for the wickedness remains. Jeremiah 6:29 (New Living Translation)
UPDATE: The super exclusive invitation-only club now has an official name: the
House Freedom Caucus. Given the exclusivity of the club, "freedom" seems a somewhat ironic inclusion in the name but then the tea party never did understand irony, nor hypocrisy for that matter.
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