John McCain demands Ted Cruz apologize to Sen. McCain… I mean, to Bob Dole

Houston Chronicle: Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) called on Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz to apologize Friday for a joke Cruz made about retired senator Bob Dole of Kansas at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.

“All of us remember President Dole, and President McCain and President Romney,” Cruz said. “Now, look, those are good men, they’re decent men, but when you don’t stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate.”

Cruz’s speech encouraged CPAC attendees to “stand with principle.”  Dole, McCain, and Romney, all of whom had unsuccessful presidential bids, were the butt of Cruz’s joke that was intended to exemplify Republicans who did not draw a clear distinction between them and their Democratic opposition.

In an interview Friday morning with Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC, McCain, a close friend of the 90-year-old Dole, criticized Cruz, saying that any joke about an injured veteran not having principle was in poor taste and that he needs to issue an apology.

“…When he throws Bob Dole in there, I wonder if he thinks that Bob Dole stood for principle on that hilltop in Italy when he was so gravely wounded and left part of his body there fighting for our country,” McCain said. “Bob Dole is such a man of honor and integrity and principle. I hope that Ted Cruz will apologize to Bob Dole because that’s — that has crossed a line that to me that leaves the realm of the politics and discourse that we should have in America.”

Let’s be honest here; McCain’s not talking about the “Pres. Dole” crack, he’s upset about “Pres. McCain.” McCain — being McCain — is butthurt that Cruz made an example of him as a bad candidate who lost because he was a RiNO. He just thinks it looks better to demand an apology on behalf of someone else, rather than himself. What he’s clearly hoping for are words to the effect of “I apologize for a joke I told at CPAC.”

But how stupid was Cruz’s statement in the first place? The candidates who ran in all those election were chosen by Republican voters. The sort of candidate that Ted Cruz argues is able to win presidential elections can’t even win Republican primaries. If they could, the names he’d be referencing would be names like Santorum, Brownback, and Gramm. It’s a silly argument and McCain would make a much better case against it by pointing out the gaping logical hole in it.

Instead, McCain makes it personal. This leaves the weakest part of the argument standing, in order to play a cheap victim card. It’s an argument that the Republican Party would do well to kill — and the Arizona senator is in a position to help do just that — but everything is all about John McCain and his intense desire that Ted Cruz get off his lawn.

[photo by Gage Skidmore]

Cruz insists everything’s fine, as his party crashes down around his ears

Raw Story: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday asserted that his crusade to kill President Barack Obama’s health care law by shutting down the U.S. government had not damaged the Republican Party in any way.

During an interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked Cruz if he had hurt the GOP brand.

“Not remotely,” Cruz laughed. “But I also think far too many people are worried about politics.”

“Listen, if we worry about what’s impacting the American people, the politics will take care of itself,” he continued. “The politicians that are gazing at polls — there is a reason why the most common sentiment across this country is that politicians aren’t listening to us, there’s a reason why Congress has a 10 to 15 percent approval rating.”

Unless I’m misunderstanding Ted here, he’s basically saying that people are spending too much time looking at polls and not enough time finding out what people think — which is, of course, complete nonsense. Polls are what people think. That’s the whole freakin’ point.

So let’s take a look at what people are thinking about the shutdown and how it’s not hurting the GOP at all, shall we?

Teagan Goddard: A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that if the 2014 midterm elections were held today, Republicans “would be in grave danger of losing control of the House of Representatives.”

In a series of 24 surveys in GOP-held House districts, Republican incumbents are behind in match ups with generic Democratic challengers in 17 districts. In 4 other districts, the incumbent Republican trails after being told that the incumbent supported the government shutdown. In just 3 districts are incumbents leading generic challengers after voters are told the incumbent supported the government shutdown.

Democrats need 17 seats to win control of the House. These results show that if the election were held today, such a pickup would be within reach.

Ted Cruz is Chicken Little in reverse; he’s saying everything is fine, while the sky actually is falling.

And it’s falling hard.

As predicted, Cruz stemwinder accomplishes nothing

New York Times (emphasis mine): Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s 21-hour, 19-minute verbal assault on President Obama’s signature health care law ended Wednesday when the Senate voted 100-to-0 to break off debate and move to consider House legislation that Democrats plan to use to keep the government open next week.

Mr. Cruz’s marathon session — which began Tuesday afternoon, went straight through the night and ended at a predetermined noon deadline — did not win over senators from either party, and in fact Mr. Cruz even voted to open debate. After the vote, Senate Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and a Cruz ally, said Mr. Cruz never intended to oppose the motion to take up the bill, a position contradicted by his words and procedural motions for days before the tally.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, greeted the conclusion of Mr. Cruz’s performance by declaring it “a big waste of time.”

The curtain falls on this little marathon of pointless political theater and it’s like it never even happened. It wasn’t even worth the money it took to keep the lights on all night.