Cruz Is Whining McConnell Won’t Give Him Money

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has a ‘sad.’ Actually it’s more like a complaint. Widely regarded for years as the most hated Senator Cruz has gotten away with his antics because he happens to represent the state of Texas. Texas we must remember hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office, or voted for a Democrat for President or Senate in ages. Cruz survived something of a scare last time around when Beto O’Rourke mounted a solid campaign that came up just short. Were  it not for how closely the Senate is divided neither Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or Cruz’s fellow Republicans would have minded one bit if ole Cancun Ted had lost.  Hell, the champagne would have been flowing in the Senate GOP Caucus meeting room!  Now Cruz appears to be in real danger of losing his seat and is whining that McConnell isn’t kicking in any money.

That’s right folks. Democratic nominee for the seat, Representative Colin Allred is making Cruz sweat big time. Polls are polls and it’s hard to trust any of them but there’s a general consensus that Allred can do what O’Rourke could not – BEAT Ted Cruz. I’m guessing from the way Cruz is publicly carrying on his own internals show him to be in deep trouble. So at this point he’s flailing about as I believe this article by The Hill suggests. Picking a public fight with the leader of your Caucus doesn’t seem all that smart to me.  However that’s exactly what Cruz has gone and done:

“Mitch McConnell runs the largest Republican super PAC in the country and has $400 million but that super PAC is used to reward the Republican senators who obey him and to punish those who dare to stand up him,” Cruz told conservative talk show host Mark Levin during a recent interview.

Asked if McConnell or the PAC had put any money into his increasingly close race against Democratic Rep. Colin Allred (Texas), Cruz replied: “Not a penny.”

It’s not like Cruz and McConnell have ever been pals. Cruz after all was hugely responsible for a govt. shutdown that cost the GOP at the polls. There are reasons why he became the most hated Senator. As promising as O’Rourke’s chances seemed to be back in 2018 I’m sure McConnell had polling that showed Cruz didn’t need any help despite being at a financial disadvantage. Again, we’re talking about freaking Texas. However the whole thing left Cruz wounded. And Cruz has done himself MORE damage with Texas voters since.  Not the least of it was his aborted attempt to ride out a winter power outage that left Texas in a deep freeze by fleeing to Cancun!  Even ole Ted knew he’d screwed the pooch on that one. He came back with a lame excuse about having gone just to make sure the family/his daughter were all set up down in MEXICO. Sure Ted. YOU get your family to a warm and safe sunny place to ride things out in luxury.  Not a good look.

There’s more of course but the bottom line is that while Allred didn’t have statewide name recognition earlier in the campaign he does now. He also has resources. And, not for nothing and since we are talking about freaking Texas Allred is a former professional football player!  That’s the kind of thing that will make some moderately conservative Republicans, or at least Republicans who’ve gotten sick of Trump and GOP KKKrazy think seriously about voting for Allred. Unless I’m mistaken that just what Cruz’s and the GOP’s internal polling is telling them. That Cruz is toast.  So why waste money there?

Alas, while a welcome piece of news on election night would be to see Cruz go down to defeat I worry the decision not to help him comes with a caveat. McConnell’s dream was to retire as Senate Majority Leader. He’s already announced he’ll step down in the new Congress that convenes on Jan. 3 but his last wish would be to be the Majority Leader as he hands over leadership of the Senate Republican Caucus to someone else. If shoring up Cruz, however much he hates doing so is necessary then McConnell would I think do so. Unless he’s pissed at having been forced aside and has no f**ks to give, especially if Trump loses.

Anyway the dark cloud is that West Virginia will send a Republican to the Senate in Democrat Joe Manchin’s place. That means only one more seat has to flip and as you know the map this year isn’t favorable for Democrats. In fact it’s been widely predicted the GOP could wind up with a two or three seat majority. Tester appears to be in real trouble in Montana. There are other seats that are closer than any of us would like them to be. On the other hand we can all recall the “Red Wave” that turned out to be a few spots on the ground so there’s some hope we can at least salvage a 50-50 Senate with VP Tim Walz serving as the tie breaker when needed.

Well, I’m really speculating now. What matters is that Cruz is picking a public fight with Mitch McConnell and from where I sit that’s pretty freaking stupid. It suggests to me his own internal polling shows him losing absent some last minute major help from outside. And the fact that it’s not coming suggests McConnell has the same data at his disposal.

So go ahead and whine Ted Cruz. And if we and your fellow GOPers are lucky you’ll lose. And you’ll have one last outburst of “Ted Cruz” and we’ll never hear from you again.  Maybe you can head to Cancun to lick your wounds?  And STAY there?

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