Ted Cruz is up against solid opposition:
They really don’t like this guy. His own colleagues are turning their back on him or simple condemning his politics.
A vast majority of the Senate disagreed with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) assertion that President Obama’s executive order on immigration is unconstitutional.
Cruz raised a constitutional point of order against the $1.1 trillion “cromnibus” — which funds most of the government through September, preventing a government shutdown.
“If you believe President Obama’s executive order was unconstitutional vote yes,” Cruz said ahead of the vote on Saturday. “If you think the president’s executive order is constitutional vote no.”
Only 22 senators voted with Cruz and 74 voted against his point of order. …TheHill
Of course, the gallery he’s been playing to resides in the House, not the Senate. Maybe they’ll stick with the guy, becoming renegades and sore losers — or even a tea party movement within a movement — until Washington flushes them away.
In the Senate, fellow Republicans are quite open about their uneasiness with Cruz while Senate Democrats are having a field day watching the antics of the rogue Republican.
“I think this is ridiculous,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) told Politico.
“Suffice it to say I’m not happy with the strategy [Cruz] has come up with, I think it’s totally counterproductive,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), according to NBC News. “This reminds me very much of the shutdown last year where the strategy made absolutely no sense and was counterproductive, and I believe we’re in the same kind of situation today.”
Democrats appeared almost gleeful Cruz was giving them time to approve a number of Obama’s stalled nominees, including the president’s pick for surgeon general. …TheHill
Politico points out that all of this only gives Cruz more credibility with the base of the tea party.
Even as he’s become marginalized in the Senate, Cruz, 43, is still wildly popular with the Republican base. He’s a hit on conservative talk radio and among staunch social and fiscal conservatives, a base of power that could make him influential in a Republican presidential primary. Battling with Republican leaders could very well bolster his standing among his staunchest conservative supporters, who have little trust in McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner. …Politico
Always a pleasure to watch the right fighting against itself.