Cruz cheers speaker’s exit,
At a Republican fundraiser late last month at a Steamboat Springs, Colo., tavern, House Speaker John Boehner reportedly told the crowd that the good thing about U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz running for president is it keeps “that jackass” out of Washington.
Notably, Boehner made no subsequent effort to deny that he had said it, or offer an apology.
On Friday, when the news broke that Boehner was going to step down as speaker, Cruz could claim credit as perhaps the single most important figure who had “kicked down the barn” in Congress, precipitating Boehner’s decision to call it quits.
It is Cruz who, in his first term in the Senate, has inspired and mentored the group of House Republican dissidents who were threatening to challenge Boehner’s speakership. It is Cruz who is acting as the field commander of the effort to force a showdown vote in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood even if meant shutting down the government, a shutdown that Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are determined to avoid.
The Boehner bombshell landed as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cruz rival for president, was taking the stage at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in Washington.
When Rubio broke the news, the crowd celebrated.
“I’m not here today to bash anyone, but the time has come to turn the page,” Rubio said. “The time has come to turn the page and allow a new generation of leadership.”
When his turn came, Cruz was introduced by one of his acolytes, Rep. Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma.
“We’re going to get new leadership in the House of Representative,” Bridenstine said. “It’s happening because there’s a newly elected senator that showed up and started articulating principles that were consistent with the Republican platform.” Cruz was exultant. “You want to know how much each of you terrify Washington?” Cruz asked of the anti-Boehner crowd. “Yesterday, John Boehner was speaker of the House. Y’all came to town and that changes.”
Talking to reporters, Cruz sharpened his attack on Boehner.
“If it is correct that the speaker, before he resigns, has cut a deal with Nancy Pelosi to fund the Obama administration for the rest of its tenure, to fund Obamacare, to fund executive amnesty, to fund Planned Parenthood, to fund implementation of this Iran deal – and then, presumably, to land in a cushy K Street job after joining with the Democrats to implement all of President Obama’s priorities, that is not the behavior one would expect of a Republican speaker of the House,” Cruz said.
Cruz has been equally blunt in his criticism of McConnell.
On Friday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, McConnell’s top lieutenant in the Senate, told the American-Statesman that Boehner’s departure ought to prompt some reflection.
“One of the things that I think we need to think about is that governing is about trying to achieve consensus and trying to solve problems,” Cornyn said. “Some people, I think, have forgotten that.”
In statements on Boehner’s decision, Reps. Michael McCaul and Roger Williams of Austin and John Carter of Round Rock had some perfunctorily nice things to say about Boehner, but were mostly focused, as Wil- liams put it, “on choosing a leader to guide the House in a conservative direction.”
But Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the lone Democrat representing Austin, offered a more caustic assessment.
“The Republican Caucus has become so rigid, so unwilling to seek common ground, that the Republican speaker finally said, ‘I give up,’ ” Doggett said. “We will have a new speaker on Halloween, but not a new way of doing business.”