Ted Cruz attacks Rand for voting against NSA bill that didn't have enough reforms

[tsai3904]

 

[William Tell]

Cruz is not being smart here, he will lose on this. You can't act like your the boldest Conservative candidate and then bash Rand for being too principled.

 

[Kotin]

what a poser.. audience doesnt know but the spin is laughable.. he is already showing that he wont be able to attack rand very effectively.. rand probably has so much ammo against him and people like rubio that the debates will be pretty sweet.

 

[phill4paul]

He heard Rand is taking a week off and so is getting in his jabs.

 

[AuH20]

Glenn Beck told Cruz to take it easy on Paul and Walker. I wonder if he takes the advice.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

What did Cruz have to say about Jeb Bush?

 

[Vanguard101]

Cruz is not being smart here, he will lose on this. You can't act like your the boldest Conservative candidate and then bash Rand for being too principled.

I disagree here. Rand isn't really that principled. The NSA reform bill also was arguably a great step forward

 

[invisible]

What did Cruz have to say about Jeb Bush?

Thread winner. Very astute.

 

[adelina]

Cruz may very well cost Rand the nomination. Something has to be done about this guy.

 

[JohnGalt1225]

Cruz may very well cost Rand the nomination. Something has to be done about this guy.

Nah, I don't think he's going to last very long. Cruz is like Michele Bachmann, he'll flame out before long. Those faux "Tea Party" types never last long.

 

[adelina]

Nah, I don't think he's going to last very long. Cruz is like Michele Bachmann, he'll flame out before long. Those faux "Tea Party" types never last long.

I certainly hope so. He has to fizzle out before Iowa because Rand needs to win either Iowa or NH to get the nomination.

 

[Spikender]

I'd like to think Rand voted against it because while it was a positive step forward, it didn't carry the reforms to do any real damage and he feared that its passage would kill debate about the NSA's bulk data collection, since people would think "it's taken care of".

 

[libertyplz]

From Doug Stafford in a CNN article:

Paul, though a stalwart critic of the NSA, indeed voted against the bill, saying it didn't go far enough. The legislation "did not fix the problem" and reauthorized expiring parts of the Patriot Act, Paul's top adviser said Thursday.

"Others are welcome to their decision to compromise on American's 4th Amendment rights, but not to cast it misleadingly as a vote for liberty," Doug Stafford said.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/politics/election-2016-ted-cruz-rand-paul-nsa-vote/

 

[jkr]

 

[JohnGalt1225]

I certainly hope so. He has to fizzle out before Iowa because Rand needs to win either Iowa or NH to get the nomination.

Cruz has the feel of man out of his depth and those types are usually exposed quickly. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, etc. burn out quickly. I'm more worried about who is this cycle's Rick Santorum, the stealth candidate that no one takes seriously but they end up making a lot of noise. I feel like Santorum cost Ron Iowa in 2012 and maybe the nomination. If it was just RP vs. Romney without Santorum gumming up the works I think Ron would have won Iowa.

 

[adelina]

Cruz has the feel of man out of his depth and those types are usually exposed quickly. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, etc. burn out quickly. I'm more worried about who is this cycle's Rick Santorum, the stealth candidate that no one takes seriously but they end up making a lot of noise. I feel like Santorum cost Ron Iowa in 2012 and maybe the nomination. If it was just RP vs. Romney without Santorum gumming up the works I think Ron would have won Iowa.

Santorum did well because he had Foster Friess bank-rolling him. Besides Jeb and Rand, only Rubio and Walker can attract that level of wealthy donors.

Edit: One thing to note about Cruz is that he is not nearly as dumb as Palin, Bachmann or Perry. He is a smart guy (just not as smart as he thinks he is) and those are always dangerous.

 

[JohnGalt1225]

Santorum did well because he had Foster Friess bank-rolling him. Besides Jeb and Rand, only Rubio and Walker can attract that level of wealthy donors.

Edit: One thing to note about Cruz is that he is not nearly as dumb as Palin, Bachmann or Perry. He is a smart guy (just not as smart as he thinks he is) and those are always dangerous.

Walker seems like a guy to me that has legs and will go far into the process. He's a governor, which people love governors, and he's got some street cred having taken on the unions in Wisconsin and been elected essentially 3 times in a blue state. He could be a threat

I didn't mean to imply Cruz was as dumb as those other candidates, merely that he seems to come from the same faux "Tea Party" wing as them.

 

[adelina]

Walker seems like a guy to me that has legs and will go far into the process. He's a governor, which people love governors, and he's got some street cred having taken on the unions in Wisconsin and been elected essentially 3 times in a blue state. He could be a threat

I didn't mean to imply Cruz was as dumb as those other candidates, merely that he seems to come from the same faux "Tea Party" wing as them.

Walker is intellectually challenged and gaffe prone. But I agree that he is a big threat and might go far, because he has the establishment backing, including that of Fox News. Priebus is also a close friend/backer of Walker's, which is significant.

This "elected 3 times in a blue state" is somewhat of a fallacy that the GOP keeps pushing. 8 out of 16 Wisconsin governors in the post-war era have been Republican, including 4 out of the last 6. Wisconsin is only truly a blue state in the presidential election (in the last 10 cycles, the only Republican who won Wisconsin was Reagan). Walker's approval ratings are also currently at its lowest since 2011. If Walker wins the nomination, he will not be able to carry his home state against Hillary, just like how Romney lost his.

 

[Xenliad]

It seems like Cruz has a Rand obsession. Rand did his filibuster, and Cruz gave a long speech that everyone calls a filibuster. Rand announces his announcement date, and Cruz rushes to announce first. And now the attacks start.

 

[Brett85]

Cruz may very well cost Rand the nomination. Something has to be done about this guy.

I've come across some pretty liberty-oriented people who support Cruz over Rand on the basis that Cruz is a straight shooter and Rand has pandered way too much. That's rather unsettling, but I can see where they're coming from. Rand's pandering and triangulation has cost him some supporters who are now supporting Cruz.

Ironically, this was a situation where Rand stuck to his principles and refused to compromise, and Cruz is criticizing him for it.