Enter
chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee “put
him at odds with the campaign
committee’s practice of supporting incumbent senators.”
Boehner had wanted to pass
a continuing resolution in the
House with an addendum attached that would give everyone
in the House a chance to once
again vent and complain about
Obamacare’s existence. But
enough members of his House
GOP caucus rose up to scuttle
that. They were largely influenced
by Cruz, who called Boehner’s
idea “political chicanery” that
“easily allows Senate Democrats
to keep funding Obamacare.”
This forced Boehner to modify
his plans, and the bitter utterances of anonymous GOP aides at
the time basically boiled down to:
“Kiss my ass, Ted Cruz, this is your
problem, now.” One GOP aide got
splenetic with Politico, like so:
If figures like Sen. Ted Cruz (RTexas) call the plan chicanery,
and other conservatives say
the House is weak, GOP leadership wants to see him and others stand up and filibuster the
CR [continuing resolution]. In
short, the House is sick of get-
LOOKING FORWARD
IN ANGST
HUFFINGTON
09.29.13
ting blamed for being weak
on Obamacare.
Asked whether they are trying
to put pressure on Senate Republicans to filibuster, Rogers
said, “You can say that.”
The basic bottom line here is
that Cruz is right about what’s
realistically possible, but GOP
leaders are nonetheless welland-rightly pissed off at Cruz
for ginning up all this mad,
stand-and-fight foolery.
A senior GOP aide said, “They
should be preparing for a two
[to] three week filibuster, to
prevent the Senate from adjourning.” The aide added that
there are enough Senate Republicans to prevent a funding bill
from reaching President Barack
Obama’s desk.
But after the House modified
their plans to suit the insurgency
that Cruz had helped foment, Cruz
suddenly shifted from rabble-rouser to surrender-monkey. In a statement that left many Republicans
gobsmacked, Cruz said, “Harry