ARE TED CRUZ AND LINDSEY GRAHAM SEEKING THE SAME NOMINATION?
|| By FITSNEWS || “I spent most of last week in Washington, D.C. – and it is great to be back in America.,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joked to an overflow crowd of hundreds of conservative activists at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition’s annual convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
The masses got it … and loved it, roaring their approval.
While the 2016 presidential hopeful served up some choice cuts of “red meat” to the Tea Party faithful, the Palmetto State’s senior “Republican” U.S. Senator – liberal Lindsey Graham – was busy charting a much different presidential trajectory hundreds of miles away.
Whereas Cruz – a freshman Senator from Texas – sought to build buzz for his presidential bid by speaking to conservative base voters in Graham’s back yard, the left-leaning GOP lawmaker was making his intentions known in a much safer, more antiseptic environment: Another Washington, D.C. talk show.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C., Graham said he was actively exploring a 2016 presidential campaign.
In fact while Cruz was bringing over a thousand activists to their feet with his call for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, Graham was invoking the agency in a much different connotation.
“We set up a testing-the-waters committee under the IRS code that will allow me to look beyond South Carolina as to whether or not a guy like Lindsey Graham has a viable path,” Graham said. “I don’t know where this will go, but I’m definitely going to look at it.”
Really?
First of all, Graham’s statement that he would be looking “beyond South Carolina” implies voters in the Palmetto State are somehow on board with his presidential aspirations.
We think that’s highly unlikely …
A two-term incumbent with the entire GOP apparatus working for him (and no credible opponent), Graham still managed only 56 percent of the vote in a low-turnout GOP primary election last June. South Carolinians then grudgingly reelected him in November with 54 percent of the vote in a low-turnout general election.
Graham had the lowest vote total – and lowest percentage of the popular vote – of any “Republican” on the ballot in South Carolina.
He won for lack of a better option, in other words …
We’re not saying Graham wouldn’t get votes in his home state were he to run for president … he absolutely would. But it’s a stretch to say an electorate resigned to his reelection as a U.S. Senator is going to somehow energize around his presidential aspirations.
He’s a creature of Washington now … a bought-and-paid for tool of the nation’s military-industrial complex whose sole purpose on the national stage is to make the case for perpetual war.
And for tax hikes to pay for it …
Accordingly, we don’t see any scenario in which Graham wins South Carolina’s “First in the South” presidential primary. Nor do we really envision a scenario in which he “queers the deal” (no pun intended) for the rest of the field in this critical early-voting state.
Of course Graham’s maneuverings do highlight the growing chasm between the fiscally liberal (a.k.a. “establishment”) and fiscally conservative (a.k.a. “Tea Party”) factions of the “Republican” Party. And while the fault lines currently tearing the GOP apart aren’t quite as simplistic as that – a fundamental debate over dollars and cents (over loyalty to Washington or to taxpayers) remains the root fissure.
As the 2016 presidential primary begins to take shape, look for the candidacies of Cruz and Graham to provide some helpful lines of demarcation regarding the GOP’s ideological spectrum.
In fact it’s hard to believe these two U.S. Senators are even campaigning for the same nomination …
56 comments
Since when did this highest calling for a legislator become ensuring citizens get and keep as much money as possible?
Since the Whiskey Rebellion? Since the first Tea Party? Since the Plymouth Rock landing? … Since the institution of the Magna Carta?
More recently since the French entertainment guild moved in mass to Belgium? Since Russian ex-pats revolted against the EU/IMF takeover of the Ukraine? Since India peacefully achieved independence from British rule? Since Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill stood and cheered, side by side, the removal of Woodrow Wilson’s price and wage caps post WWI. …
… Since the Civil War?
Nikki assures that for herself, her family, and her cronies. Pretty much nobody else, in the state of SC.
““We set up a testing-the-waters committee under the IRS code that will allow me to look beyond South Carolina as to whether or not a gal like Lindsey Graham has a viable path,”
All fixed for you Lindsey.
Ted, Ted, Ted. Welcome back to Ameriaca. You’re a great Amerian and all of SC will vote for you – even if you run as an independent.
“I spent most of last week in Washington, D.C. – and it is great to be back in America.,”
He could have said the same thing about,Myrtle Beach
HE actually will. “I just spent the last weekend in Myrtle Beach, and what a shit-hole. And who’se this Nimrata they keep talking about?”
This time of year in MB, he could’ve said, “Great to be back in Canada.”
Has Donald Trump sent any investigators to Cnada?
Nope, no question about Ted Cruz’s nationality because he “looks like one of us” if you catch my drift.
He does kind of look like my great aunt Edna.
Graham is a centrist, rather than a liberal. He is certainly no leftist. Unless you follow the historical trail of neo-cons in general, back to their roots in the Leon Trotsky brand of communism. He is, for sure, a big-spending, big-taxing war whore, and thus he is always a willing shill for the war profiteers and the body bag lobby.
If he wants to run for POTUS, though, he needs to grow a beard.
I mean FIND one.
Aren’t you Shifty Henry with a beard?
He used ‘shifty henry’ on TSN blogs and articles.’shifty’ here seems ok.
The new one ‘grandtangosuglydog’ is vile.
why because i call you out for what you are..a meaningless hate filled racist troll who has to lie and act like a proven coward because you have to use so many handles to try and back your own points, when that fails as everything in your life does, you then have to use my handle…what a coward. Nailed it..thanks.
He thinks you’re me. And that I’ve used “shifty henry” in the past. Fucking loon.
I never used “shifty henry”, freak. That’s another one of your bald-faced lies.
Got it: rhinoceros wannabe without the T-shirt.
I guess …?
If you confront many of these self-confessed neocon Republicans with the reality of ties between their movement, Irving Kristol (et. al.) and Trotskyism their heads may explode.
The Tea Party View of Graham – from Breitbart posts –
“He is riding in the boat with John McCain, that means he is a liberal Obama and Obamacare supporter.” – Guest
Seriously, Guest – oh Flippy.
The “Tea Party” view is often warped. The “organization”, or “movement”, or whatever it is, is factionalized within itself, just as is the GOP — and to a lesser extent, the Democratic Party.
I’m not sure what kind of faction Big T and Flippy belong to. I don’t think anyone would claim them. They are what Kurt Vonnegut, in Cat’s Cradle, called a “duprass.”
Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of Death’s construction
Were there any TEA-friendly blacks or Hispanics in Myrtle Beach?
Yes and none of them were gay.
Log Cabin Republicans don’t real.
Tim Scott didn’t show?
we all know..if any gays had been present..you would KNOW..you would KNOW huh little man?
Tea-friendly blacks or Hispanics? Maybe the caterer’s staff had a few minorities in there carrying around pitchers of tea for the crowd. Is that what you’re asking?
If you search carefuly, you can still find articles and such on the Original Taxed Enough Already crowd that consisted of Rs and Ds, mostly middle class people of all races that were fed up with being played for the chumps of politics with their paychecks. When they really grabbed some traction, the media started running stories featuring white supremacists and religious Taliban nuts claiming TEA status to get their viewpoints out there until nobody in their right mind wanted to be affiliated. Those Originals are still out there and showed up at the polls this past election.
The media did not need to run any stories. They only needed to film the signs at Tea Party rallies and interview a few of the folks who showed up.
Actually the good folks holding the many of those signs were shown to be operatives trying to demonstrate their take on the TEA party. YouTube is full of videos of those goat ropers being called out.
The Tea Party was an organization founded and funded by Republican operatives to get out Republican voters disillusioned by Bush’s catastrophic Presidency. They used whatever means necessary to draw people in, including racism and hatred of Obama. The tea party has always had plenty of birthers and the I want my country back crowd.
Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, and Ted Cruz.
Why does Canada always give us the crappy ones?
Take all 3 of em over what Kenya gave us.
Elephants?
Figured you for a Justin Beiber fan..you told us last week you loved AXE body spray..(true..cant make this shit up..) and now you love the biebs…LOLOLOLOLOL sometimes Christmas comes early.
Hey Smirks, we also gave you Michael J. Fox, Glenn Ford, Mary Pickford, Wayne Gretzky and many others. You’ve gotta take some of the crap with the good.
The McKenzie Brothers
Bunch of hosers….
Eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZCI39NWZ5g
We need someone to occupy our beach hotels in the winter.
Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/theCanadaParty)
Facebook (http://facebook.com/theCanadaParty)
The Book – (http://AmericabutBetter.com)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrhA0sEkuaM
(Don’t leave out Tom Brokaw …)
Not Brokaw. You must be thinking Peter Jennings.
You [R] right: Brokaw grew up in the Dakotas, Jennings was hatched in Canada.
It must have been that global cooling thingy … way, way back when.
It’s punishment for taking all the good hockey player and comedians.(224 of 263 hockey HOFers are Canadian, yet most played for US teams)
#jimcarey
CRAPVILLE, SC – Ted Cruz arrived here today to a huge welcoming crowd of supporters as he made his way back westward from Myrtle Beach. Speaking in the town square, from atop the raised platform that covers the large septic tank used by the Fire Department and City Hall complex, Cruz rejoiced about his time in South Carolina, and committed to reverse the Marxist policies that are strangling growth in the state. Commenting on it’s tops in the South unemployment rate, and region leading rate of uninsured and lack of access to health services, Cruz promised to defund Obamacare and return the local poor of color to using baking soda dissolved in water to fix most health issues, the way minorities in his own home state in Canada used to do. When asked if he would stay for dinner, Cruz politely declined, saying he was due back at the Capital Grille in the nation’s capital for a steak with some french sounding name, and some asparagus with Louis Gohmert who leads no particilar Congresssional committee. Upon hearing Goobert’s name the crowd went wild, and marched en masse to Golden Corral for the early bird chopped steak special.
10+
THE BUTTFUCKED “REPUBLICAN” PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
Small correction to your post – no thanks necessary
Party unity via comments on Breitbart:
“the only thing that will get rid of the progressive, socialist takeover of America is a civil war. the country has gone too far down that rat hole to ever turn it around at the ballot box.” – re: Common Core
“Huckabee is still a RINO and has zero chance of winning the primary…it is rigged for Jeb Bush.” – re: Primaries
“If Kasich believes that we the people are hysterical over Common Core I success that he is completely out of touch with our founding principles. Further, he must be death and blind to the take over of education by the politicians” – re: Kasich supports Common Core (incorrect word usages left in post – honestly – Helen Keller anyone?)
“I can say with 100% certainty that if Jeb Bush is the Republican nominee for president, I will be voting third party or writing in the candidate of my choice, period.” – re: Jeb Bush
“You don’t seem to care that Jebby married an illegal alien Mexican woman. You could give a rat’s behind about his policies (totally RINO). You just want Boosh to win. That makes you a fool.” – re: Jeb Bush
Pop-corn, get your pop corn. Pepsi, cold Pepsi. Peanuts, we got roasted peanuts.
When I was a kid, Myrtle Beach was known for horny punks with hard dicks looking for sluts. Seems like at last they found each other.
Here’s the thing folks. The GOP is sitting pretty in the House of Reps, most gov. mansions and state legislatures and now the Senate. That’s all based on “local politics”…i.e. paranoid and angry white voters.
However, to win a national presidential election (keeping in mind the electoral votes of NY, Calif., Ohio, Florida and various other states that are either blue or trending purple) you can’t put up a candidate like Cruz or Carson or Graham or Paul and expect to win.
However, a Romney, McCain or a Bush will never fit into the new modern makings of die hard red states and their uber conservative ilk. They have to run hard to the right to get the state primary nods then back peddle in the General Election back towards the middle. Recipe for disaster every time.
I think the GOP understands this and has all but given up on the White House. Instead they want to gin up hate towards the Feds and move power back to the states where they run the show a la 1860’s style.
…then back peddle
No.
Just…
No.
Oh shit everyone…it’s the editor in chief.
I did not know that Graham was out. I thought he was staying indoors until the Ebola scare was over…