The shutdown crisis he by and large engineered may have done wonders for his support among Tea Party groupies, but among everyone else, Ted Cruz has been left with very few friends, even among his own party. Republican after Republican after Republican has savaged, criticized and torn at the meglomaniacal Canucklehead, blaming him for leading the GOP into this debacle without any plan to get out and doing so only to serve his own ambitions. And that's just on the GOP side. Here's Harry Reid today sharing his thoughts on Teddy, as well as other colleagues of his (including savaging David Vitter for his "screw the staffers" amendment and saying "he's not playing with a full deck"):
Reid said that in his 30 years in Congress, he could not recall a senator meddling so much in House affairs.
"Ted Cruz, well, he proved he has a great fundraising operation," Reid said. "But you don't have to have Harry Reid criticizing him. Republicans criticized him. What do you think that vote was last night from Republicans? That was a message to Ted Cruz: 'What the hell are you doing?'… He is a laughing stock to everybody but him. What has he accomplished other than raising some money for president? And if this man can get the nomination to be the Republican nominee for president, I pity the Republican Party.
"Ted Cruz is smart," Reid added. "He has always been able to talk down to people. He is now in the Senate. People are as smart as he is. He can't talk down to anyone anymore. But he has still not accepted that in his own head. He still thinks he's smarter than everybody else. He might be able to work a calculus problem better than I can. But he can't legislate better than I can."
But not to worry, Teddy. You may be the most hated man in D.C. right now, scorned by much of your own party and mocked by Democrats. You're even losing support back home. But cheer up! At least you've got this convicted felon backing you up:
But former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) insisted on Thursday that most people in the "real world" consider Cruz and the House Republicans to be heroes.
"When you're in a fight, people just don't like the fight, so they're going to respond negatively," DeLay said on CNN. "It's who wins and comes out of the fight that has long-lasting effects. And I got to tell you right now, out here in the real world, outside of New York and Washington, D.C., these people think Ted Cruz is a hero. They think that those Republicans in the House are heroes. And they think that Obama is destroying this country."
To paraphrase Inigo Montoya:
"You keep saying that phrase 'real world.' I do not think it means what you think it means." (Though I can hear the racial dogwhistle loud and clear, Tommy.)
I have a strong feeling that DeLay is drinking again. Even Karl Rove on Election Night 2012 isn't this far gone in delusion.
But if "real Americans" think Teddy is a hero, why are he and the GOP so unpopular right now? Well, of course, it's all the media's fault:
But DeLay blamed the media for "completely trash[ing]" Cruz and congressional Republicans generally and said polls are "run to push a media narrative." He also said that polls are "not dynamic" and therefore, he argued, do not accurately reflect people's changing attitudes toward certain politicians.
And he wasn't done verbally fellating Teddy:
"Ted Cruz is a leader," DeLay said. "People in this country for years have been begging for leadership, and Ted Cruz filled the void of leadership."
If by "leadership," you mean scream, throw temper tanrums, read Dr. Suess on the Senate floor (and totally botch the metaphor), plot in the basements of Mexican restaurants and force his party into a self-destruction debacle for the ages, then yes, Teddy has that leadership in spades.
I don't know about the "country" wanting that leadership, Tommy, but if the Democrats were begging the GOP to want that kind of leadership, their prayers have been answered and then some.
The Lord works in mysterious ways...