Ted Cruz's Scary Cornfield
There is a classic Twilight Zone episode, “It’s a Good Life”
which centers around the small farm town of Peeksville, Ohio, and Anthony, a
malevolent small child possessed of nearly infinite power to read minds and alter
matter. When angered, Anthony can
mutilate, transform, and destroy.
Anthony’s terrified parents, and the few townspeople left,
have no choice but to humor him. Whatever
he wants, no matter how unpleasant, elicits “It’s good Anthony, it’s real good.”
After a particularly gruesome act, his parents beg him to take it away, to “wish it into the cornfield.”
Rod Serling’s brilliance often lay in telling an improbable story
that somehow resonated emotionally, causing us to recognize something in ourselves
or the world around us that challenged or frightened.
Anthony scares us. He
has no rules, no master, no boundaries, no experience, no need to rely on or
please others. He lives only to satisfy
himself, and seems insensate to the pain he causes.
Ted Cruz had another Anthony moment last week, causing a
fair amount of discomfort to some of his Republican brethren. On Tuesday, House Speaker Boehner, exhausted
from trying to find any sweetener that would induce his caucus to vote out a
suspension of the Treasury’s debt limit, finally took 27 other Republicans and
joined with the Democrats to pass a clean bill. On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell
prepared to let the Democrats, on a straight-line party vote, send it to the
President for signature. That is when Cruz
decided to use his dark powers.
Cruz’s maneuver was a simple one, but it had destructive
consequences. Under normal
circumstances, when a particular bill, even a controversial one, clearly has
enough support, and the result is not anathema to the losing party, there’s a
certain amount of kabuki that comes into play.
A quick headcount determines how many votes are there for passage. If there’s more than enough, then the Whips
can let individual members vote their own local interests, even when they
seemed to be bucking their party.
Alternatively, when the losing side wants to go on record as opposing,
but not actually block the legislation, they can just let the vote happen. Then the majority “owns the bill” and the
losers can talk about how principled they were.
That, at least, was McConnell’s plan; Reid would bring the bill up, the
Democrats would pass it, the nation would not default, and then everyone would
go home.
Cruz, of course, would have none of it, and so he threatened
a filibuster. That forced a sixty-vote
threshold for cloture, thereby making the bill impossible to pass without
Republican support. He was tearing away
their fig leaf: unanimously voting against it while (mostly) silently
supporting it.
This caused chaos in the Republican caucus, because they
were left with two unpalatable choices.
Either they could find five of their own to break the filibuster,
allowing the final vote and passage. Or,
they could yield to Cruz, send the nation into default, and “own it.” The
problem was that they didn’t have the five votes, or more accurately, they
didn’t have five Senators willing to go on record. This put McConnell in a real bind, because
centrist Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
(who had lost her own primary in 2010) were being asked to walk the plank for
their more conservative brethren, and even counting those, there may not have
been enough. No Republican wanted to be
the 60th vote and put a bulls-eye on their back.
What made things worse was that the GOP was out of
time. The House had already adjourned,
so it was this bill, or no bill. The GOP
leadership huddled while the Democrats did something almost unprecedented—they
stopped the public reading of the tally so as not to shake up the financial
markets. Cruz was apparently thrilled
with himself, strutting around with a smirk on his face. McConnell and his
leadership were furious, and, in the end, not five, but twelve Republicans,
including McConnell and John Cornyn (minority whip) voted to cut off
debate. With the filibuster broken, all
twelve then voted against suspending the debt ceiling.
But, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out in an editorial
“The Minority Maker” the damage had been done.
Republicans could still blame the Democrats for the bill, but in truth,
the Democrats didn’t “own it” anymore. And,
to compound things, activist groups aligned with Cruz then announced they would
use this vote against McConnell and Cornyn in their 2014 primaries. Ted Cruz, team player.
Why did Cruz do it? He says his motive was to force
concessions from Mr. Obama and the Democrats.
But the real reason? Because he wanted
to, he could, and he enjoyed it. And it
furthers his ambitions. He wants to be President, sooner rather than later, and
has decided that this is his moment.
Ted Cruz may be destructive, but he’s not stupid. He’s looking to build a power base outside
not only the Senate, but also the Republican establishment. And he knows he
gets two bites at the apple, because Tea Party supporters essentially get to
vote twice. Tea-aligned “Cast-iron
Conservatives” have shown substantial success in dominating GOP party functions
like caucuses and nominating conventions.
They just show up and swamp the party regulars. In pure primary states, their passion drives
them to the polls and gives them an influence greater than their actual numbers. Cruz can win a lot of states. And, if the Tea Party itself decides to have
a Presidential nominating convention, Cruz is well placed to take that
nomination as well.
What Cruz has discovered is that he doesn’t have to play
nice, and that suits him. If he wants a sympathetic ear, there are conservative
media outlets providing airtime at a moment’s notice. He has his own
fundraising organization, and he doesn’t need anything that the Senate leadership
can offer. John Cornyn is already
bringing in the bucks, so Texas isn’t going to get more (or less) because of
Cruz. As for committee memberships, Cruz
isn’t really interested in the hard work of legislating. In fact, the opposite is true—the more he gums
things up, the more committed his supporters are.
Can he be stopped?
Maybe. The real fear of the Wall
Street Journal and GOP insiders is that Cruz will continue to be a disrupter,
and the blame for the disruption will fall on them. The message they want to put out in 2014 and
2016 is that Mr. Obama has been a poor President and everyone hates Obamacare. That line has real potential to resonate, but
only if the GOP demonstrates it is the adult ready to govern. Shutdowns and defaulting tell a different
story. Cruz’s closed fist might sell to
an angry mob, but it’s a hard strategy to take nationally.
That being said, I think that Cruz is playing his hand
shrewdly. In an atomized primary season,
there is a path to the nomination for someone who can consolidate his strength,
no matter how he does it. If he succeeds,
the party establishment will get in line.
And if he wins the Presidency, he surely will have a Republican House
and Senate, where many agree with much of his philosophy, if not his tactics. In
short, he doesn’t need them to say “It’s good, Ted, it’s real good.”
So, is it possible we will see a Cruz Administration in
2017? Still a long shot, but possible.
Scary thought. Wish
it into the cornfield, please. Wish it
into the cornfield.
Michael Liss
(Moderate Moderator)
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