How did he do it? By claiming that Ted is only pretending to be a right-wing psycho! In his must-read missive, “If Amnesty Wins, Blame Cruz,” Mickey explains that when Mario “Trust me, I’m Cuban” Rubio was slamming his Gang of 8-approved monstrosity through the Senate, Ted was nowhere to be found. Sure, he said he was against it, but what did he do about it? “He contributed the minimum necessary to maintain his credibility”—the old damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer thing. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The guy went to Harvard! What more do you need to know?
But that’s not the worst of Ted’s tricks. He’s also positioning himself as the Tea Party’s premier nutjob by pressing for the defunding of ObamaCare, but guess what? That’s all an act too! He knows it won’t work! That’s why he’s doing it! Here’s how Mickey lays it out:
Once the Gang of 8 bill cleared the Senate, the best hope of blocking it was to delay House consideration until after the August recess, when the Republican grass roots could attend town halls and drive home that they’d oppose any backsliding from their elected Representatives. At the same time, it became clear that the amnesty-friendly GOP House leadership realized that the way to sneak amnesty through was to not talk about it, lest those grass roots get riled up. Hence, the Boehner “piecemeal” strategy–nothing to see here, just a few little bills!
Into this void stepped Cruz, who made a bold attempt to rouse a “grassroots army” for the cause of … defunding Obamacare. So instead of haranguing their members about unchecked immigration, hard core red-staters would harangue them about the Democrats’ health care plans. Cruz’s strategy had no hope of actually defunding Obamacare. By attempting to shut down the government over the issue it had a much greater chance of reviving Democratic fortunes.
