Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Stuck With Ted: The GOP Establishment Is Grudgingly, Reluctantly
Joining Team Cruz
________________________________________
Stuck With Ted: The GOP Establishment Is Grudgingly, Reluctantly Joining
Team Cruz
By Simon Maloy [1] / Salon [2]
March 18, 2016
If you were to pick one Republican senator out of the many who serve in
Congress who would be least likely to throw his support behind Ted Cruz's
presidential campaign, it would have to be Lindsey Graham. The South
Carolina senator is the living embodiment of everything Cruz inveighs
against: He's an establishment barnacle, he cuts deals with Democrats on big
issues like immigration, and he's a big supporter of neoconservative foreign
policies. And the two have publicly clashed before. On foreign policy,
Graham has called Cruz "just as wrong as Obama, if not worse." Graham has
said [3] that Cruz is an "opportunist" with "no credibility." They've fought
[4] on everything from presidential nominations to healthcare to government
shutdowns. A few weeks ago, Graham joked [5] that "if you killed Ted Cruz on
the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would
convict you."
And yet, just Thursday, Lindsey Graham announced [6] that he was going to do
everything he can to help Ted Cruz win the presidency, including fundraising
and. well, at this point it's just raising money. But still, for Lindsey
Graham of all people to bite the bullet and sign up for Team Cruz is a
pretty strong indicator of how thoroughly desperate Republicans are to stop
Donald Trump.
Cruz hasn't exactly been a popular presidential candidate on Capitol Hill.
For a while he was the only candidate who had not been endorsed by a sitting
senator (even Donald Trump had Jeff Sessions in his corner). Senate
Republicans were instead rallying around Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and this
suited Cruz perfectly well. His whole political identity is that of the
anti-establishment rebel, the guy Republicans in D.C. love to hate. He
deliberately provoked the ire and disrespect [7] of his Senate colleagues to
prove to conservatives that he was standing up to the establishment and
fighting for conservative causes. But now that both Jeb and Rubio have
slinked off the presidential stage, victims of the Donald Trump insurgency,
Cruz is emerging as the reluctant choice for establishment Republicans [8]
who still hate him but don't know where else to turn.
That may seem like good news for Cruz, but he actually finds himself in a
precarious position here. If Cruz had run a stronger campaign for president,
he could welcome the trickling support of the Republican establishment by
making the argument that he had fought his way to the top of the party and
earned their respect and loyalty as the leader of a conservative revolution.
But that's not what is happening now.
Cruz is losing to Trump, and he's losing pretty badly. He put up some
disappointing results in the March 15 contests, where he'd hoped to steal a
state or two from Trump, but instead ended up taking fewer delegates than
John Kasich [9]. He hasn't conquered the party; he's lasted long enough that
the party is reluctantly bolstering him as the only plausible alternative to
Trump. And people like Lindsey Graham and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
are making clear that Cruz is not their preferred candidate even as they
lend Cruz their support. "The only thing I can say now is my hope and my
prayer is that Sen. Cruz can come through this," Haley, a former Rubio
supporter, said this week [10] in getting behind Cruz. "That's who privately
I'm fighting for. I do see a path for him, because I think he's been solid
and strong the entire way. I think that he's been disciplined in the way
that he's done it."
Lindsey Graham was even blunter when describing the political calculations
he's made. "I think he's the best alternative to Donald Trump," Graham said
of Cruz on CNN, hurriedly spitting out the words as if they were ashes on
this tongue. "He's certainly not my preference, Sen. Cruz is not. But he's a
reliable Republican conservative of which I've had many differences with."
Asked if he was actually endorsing Cruz, Graham hedged. "What I'm saying,
you know, John Kasich, I think, is the most viable general election
candidate," Graham explained. "I just don't see how John gets through the
primary."
Cruz doesn't look like the conquering hero here. He looks like the candidate
of last resort, the "break glass in case of emergency" option. He's being
bolstered by the people who loathe him only because he's still slightly more
tolerable than the voters' preferred candidate. It's precisely the sort of
alliance of convenience that Cruz has railed against as a senator. He wanted
to win by being the Republican establishment's worst nightmare, not by being
the tool of a Republican establishment that is scared of something much more
dangerous than Ted Cruz.
Simon Maloy is Salon's political writer. Email him at smaloy@xxxxxxxxx [11].
Follow him on Twitter at @SimonMaloy [12].
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [13]
[14]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/stuck-ted-gop-establishment-grudgingly
-reluctantly-joining-team-cruz
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/simon-maloy-0
[2] http://www.salon.com
[3]
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/12/02/lindsey_graham_ted_cruz_ha
s_done_more_to_help_isis_than_any_senator_other_than_rand_paul.html
[4]
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-08/ted-cruz-and-lindsey-g
raham-at-odds-over-boots-on-the-ground-
[5] http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/26/politics/lindsey-graham-ted-cruz-dinner/
[6]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/03/17/lindsey-gr
aham-ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-race/81918250/
[7]
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/29/ted_cruzs_humiliation_strategy_appealing_to_
conservative_voters_by_publicizing_his_failures/
[8]
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432892/donald-trump-divides-congressio
nal-gop-party-insiders
[9] https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/710536874977267712
[10]
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/nikki-haley-endorses-ted-cruz-
n540366
[11] mailto:smaloy@xxxxxxxxx
[12] https://twitter.com/SimonMaloy
[13] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Stuck With Ted: The GOP
Establishment Is Grudgingly, Reluctantly Joining Team Cruz
[14] http://www.alternet.org/
[15] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Stuck With Ted: The GOP Establishment Is Grudgingly, Reluctantly
Joining Team Cruz
Stuck With Ted: The GOP Establishment Is Grudgingly, Reluctantly Joining
Team Cruz
By Simon Maloy [1] / Salon [2]
March 18, 2016
If you were to pick one Republican senator out of the many who serve in
Congress who would be least likely to throw his support behind Ted Cruz's
presidential campaign, it would have to be Lindsey Graham. The South
Carolina senator is the living embodiment of everything Cruz inveighs
against: He's an establishment barnacle, he cuts deals with Democrats on big
issues like immigration, and he's a big supporter of neoconservative foreign
policies. And the two have publicly clashed before. On foreign policy,
Graham has called Cruz "just as wrong as Obama, if not worse." Graham has
said [3] that Cruz is an "opportunist" with "no credibility." They've fought
[4] on everything from presidential nominations to healthcare to government
shutdowns. A few weeks ago, Graham joked [5] that "if you killed Ted Cruz on
the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would
convict you."
And yet, just Thursday, Lindsey Graham announced [6] that he was going to do
everything he can to help Ted Cruz win the presidency, including fundraising
and. well, at this point it's just raising money. But still, for Lindsey
Graham of all people to bite the bullet and sign up for Team Cruz is a
pretty strong indicator of how thoroughly desperate Republicans are to stop
Donald Trump.
Cruz hasn't exactly been a popular presidential candidate on Capitol Hill.
For a while he was the only candidate who had not been endorsed by a sitting
senator (even Donald Trump had Jeff Sessions in his corner). Senate
Republicans were instead rallying around Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and this
suited Cruz perfectly well. His whole political identity is that of the
anti-establishment rebel, the guy Republicans in D.C. love to hate. He
deliberately provoked the ire and disrespect [7] of his Senate colleagues to
prove to conservatives that he was standing up to the establishment and
fighting for conservative causes. But now that both Jeb and Rubio have
slinked off the presidential stage, victims of the Donald Trump insurgency,
Cruz is emerging as the reluctant choice for establishment Republicans [8]
who still hate him but don't know where else to turn.
That may seem like good news for Cruz, but he actually finds himself in a
precarious position here. If Cruz had run a stronger campaign for president,
he could welcome the trickling support of the Republican establishment by
making the argument that he had fought his way to the top of the party and
earned their respect and loyalty as the leader of a conservative revolution.
But that's not what is happening now.
Cruz is losing to Trump, and he's losing pretty badly. He put up some
disappointing results in the March 15 contests, where he'd hoped to steal a
state or two from Trump, but instead ended up taking fewer delegates than
John Kasich [9]. He hasn't conquered the party; he's lasted long enough that
the party is reluctantly bolstering him as the only plausible alternative to
Trump. And people like Lindsey Graham and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
are making clear that Cruz is not their preferred candidate even as they
lend Cruz their support. "The only thing I can say now is my hope and my
prayer is that Sen. Cruz can come through this," Haley, a former Rubio
supporter, said this week [10] in getting behind Cruz. "That's who privately
I'm fighting for. I do see a path for him, because I think he's been solid
and strong the entire way. I think that he's been disciplined in the way
that he's done it."
Lindsey Graham was even blunter when describing the political calculations
he's made. "I think he's the best alternative to Donald Trump," Graham said
of Cruz on CNN, hurriedly spitting out the words as if they were ashes on
this tongue. "He's certainly not my preference, Sen. Cruz is not. But he's a
reliable Republican conservative of which I've had many differences with."
Asked if he was actually endorsing Cruz, Graham hedged. "What I'm saying,
you know, John Kasich, I think, is the most viable general election
candidate," Graham explained. "I just don't see how John gets through the
primary."
Cruz doesn't look like the conquering hero here. He looks like the candidate
of last resort, the "break glass in case of emergency" option. He's being
bolstered by the people who loathe him only because he's still slightly more
tolerable than the voters' preferred candidate. It's precisely the sort of
alliance of convenience that Cruz has railed against as a senator. He wanted
to win by being the Republican establishment's worst nightmare, not by being
the tool of a Republican establishment that is scared of something much more
dangerous than Ted Cruz.
Simon Maloy is Salon's political writer. Email him at smaloy@xxxxxxxxx [11].
Follow him on Twitter at @SimonMaloy [12].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [13]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[14]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/stuck-ted-gop-establishment-grudgingly
-reluctantly-joining-team-cruz
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/simon-maloy-0
[2] http://www.salon.com
[3]
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/12/02/lindsey_graham_ted_cruz_ha
s_done_more_to_help_isis_than_any_senator_other_than_rand_paul.html
[4]
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-08/ted-cruz-and-lindsey-g
raham-at-odds-over-boots-on-the-ground-
[5] http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/26/politics/lindsey-graham-ted-cruz-dinner/
[6]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/03/17/lindsey-gr
aham-ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-race/81918250/
[7]
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/29/ted_cruzs_humiliation_strategy_appealing_to_
conservative_voters_by_publicizing_his_failures/
[8]
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432892/donald-trump-divides-congressio
nal-gop-party-insiders
[9] https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/710536874977267712
[10]
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/nikki-haley-endorses-ted-cruz-
n540366
[11] mailto:smaloy@xxxxxxxxx
[12] https://twitter.com/SimonMaloy
[13] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Stuck With Ted: The GOP
Establishment Is Grudgingly, Reluctantly Joining Team Cruz
[14] http://www.alternet.org/
[15] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
