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EXCELLENT NYT article on why the GOP establishment loathes Cruz.
Ted Cruz Names Friends, but Silence From G.O.P. Brass Deafens
By JONATHAN MARTIN and MATT FLEGENHEIMERMARCH 27, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/us/politics/ted-cruz-names-friends-but-silence-from-gop-brass-deafens.html
As Mr. Cruz seeks to unite the disparate factions of the Republican Party that are bonded only by their dead-set opposition to Donald J. Trump, a high-wire act is required: welcoming the top ranks of the same establishment he has spent years excoriating while not abandoning the hard-line conservatives who like him in part because of his attacks on party leaders.
***
“They’re afraid of Trump’s voters and they hate Cruz,” explained Senator Lindsey Graham, who has tried to rally his colleagues behind Mr. Cruz. “But if I can swallow my pride, they can, too.”
***
Compounding the problem is Mr. Cruz himself. He often portrays this election as akin to 1980, when Ronald Reagan won in a landslide. But he appears to be privately grappling with whether he would be better off playing the 1976 version of Reagan, who carried the banner of unadulterated conservatism against the eventual Republican nominee all the way to the convention, fell short and won four years later.
***
Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican senator and Mr. Cruz’s fellow Texan, privately lobbied Mr. Cruz to attend a Senate Republican luncheon in the Capitol and soothe feelings, according to a Republican strategist briefed on the request. But after a CNN report in which some Republican senators suggested that Mr. Cruz apologize to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whom Mr. Cruz called a liar on the Senate floor, Mr. Cruz’s campaign became irritated and backed off a peacemaking lunch.
By JONATHAN MARTIN and MATT FLEGENHEIMERMARCH 27, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/us/politics/ted-cruz-names-friends-but-silence-from-gop-brass-deafens.html
As Mr. Cruz seeks to unite the disparate factions of the Republican Party that are bonded only by their dead-set opposition to Donald J. Trump, a high-wire act is required: welcoming the top ranks of the same establishment he has spent years excoriating while not abandoning the hard-line conservatives who like him in part because of his attacks on party leaders.
***
“They’re afraid of Trump’s voters and they hate Cruz,” explained Senator Lindsey Graham, who has tried to rally his colleagues behind Mr. Cruz. “But if I can swallow my pride, they can, too.”
***
Compounding the problem is Mr. Cruz himself. He often portrays this election as akin to 1980, when Ronald Reagan won in a landslide. But he appears to be privately grappling with whether he would be better off playing the 1976 version of Reagan, who carried the banner of unadulterated conservatism against the eventual Republican nominee all the way to the convention, fell short and won four years later.
***
Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican senator and Mr. Cruz’s fellow Texan, privately lobbied Mr. Cruz to attend a Senate Republican luncheon in the Capitol and soothe feelings, according to a Republican strategist briefed on the request. But after a CNN report in which some Republican senators suggested that Mr. Cruz apologize to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whom Mr. Cruz called a liar on the Senate floor, Mr. Cruz’s campaign became irritated and backed off a peacemaking lunch.