SPEAKING OF TED CRUZ…

You know, putting that all important decorum of the U.S. Senate aside, sometimes you just gotta call ‘em like you see ‘em.  And such was the case where we all saw conservative Senator Ted Cruz was recently left with no alternative but to call out RINO Mitch McConnell.  I would like to think that it was very few of us who reside out here beyond the beltway who saw anything wrong with what Cruz said.  McConnell is useless, as is his counterpart over the House, John ‘Boner’.  Neither one of these guys are the kind of ‘leader’ that we need in what has now become, or has been made into, such a critical time in our history. 

And Cruz proceeded to double down on his criticism of McConnell this past Sunday after senior RINO senators criticized him for calling McConnell a liar on Friday.  The anger at Cruz came after he called McConnell a liar on Friday for allowing a vote on an amendment to a highway funding bill that would re-charter the U.S. Export-Import Bank.  Cruz complained, and rightfully so, that McConnell, who also opposes the Ex-Im Bank, had promised him and other Republicans that there would be no deal to allow the Ex-Im amendment.  It was during a floor speech on Friday that Cruz said, "I cannot believe he would tell a flat-out lie." 

Later the same day, Cruz made an appearance on Rush Limbaugh's syndicated radio show, where he said, "Back when we were having the fight over trade promotion authority, I asked Mitch McConnell directly if he had cut a deal to reauthorize this cronyism and corporate welfare in order to try to get the votes, and he looked at me, he looked at all 54 Republican senators, and he said flat-out, 'There is no deal. There is no deal. There is no deal.'"  McConnell is no better than ‘Dingy Harry’ Reid, you can’t believe a single thing he says.  And in some ways he’s even worse than Reid, because you expect such sleazy behavior from someone like him.

It was in his Senate floor speech that Cruz compared McConnell's repeating of the phrase to the Apostle Peter, who three times denied Christ.  And it was shortly thereafter that we heard from three of the more prominent RINOs, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and John Cornyn of Texas when they all took to the floor during a rare Sunday session to denounce Cruz before then advancing the Ex-Im amendment on a 67-26 vote.  The credibility of these three turncoats borders on being nonexistent.  Far from being part of the solution, they are three of the primary players involved in making sure the status quo is maintained.

In fact it was RINO Hatch who said, "Regrettably, in recent times, the Senate floor has too often become a forum for partisan messaging."  And he went on to say, "Squabbling and sanctimony may be tolerated in other venues and perhaps on the campaign trail, but they have no place among colleagues in the United States Senate.”  So I’m guessing that the outright dishonesty of McConnell is behavior that seen as being acceptable as well as far more appropriate for the Senate floor than is the honestly that we saw, and heard, coming from Sen. Cruz.  Well, no real surprise there, I suppose.  Which is to be expected.

Hatch added, "The Senate floor has even become a place where senators have singled out colleagues by name to attack them … and impugn their character in blatant disregard for Senate rules."  He said, "Such misuses of the Senate floor must not be tolerated."  Adding finally, "It has been used as a tool to advance personal ambitions, a venue to promote political campaigns, and even a vehicle to enhance fundraising efforts, all at the expense of the proper functioning of this body."  If anyone can be said to be guilty of misusing the Senate floor, I’d say that would be Mitch McConnell and his cadre of RINOs ever since this Congress came into session.

Cruz responded moments later, saying he agreed with Hatch's call for civility and decorum. But, he said, "speaking the truth about actions is entirely consistent with civility."  Cruz argued "it is entirely consistent with decorum and with the nature of this body traditionally as the world's greatest deliberative body, to speak the truth."  He said, "On Friday I gave an unusual speech, a speech unlike any I have given in this chamber. It was not a speech I was happy to give."  He added, "I described an explicit promise the majority leader had made to me and to all 53 Republican senators."  But you see, McConnell and the RINOs see themselves about having to tell the truth.

When asked whether he had gone too far in Friday's speech, Cruz said he had not, and accused the press of not focusing on the main issue: whether McConnell lied.  He said, "I would note that on the discussion of my speech on Friday, there have been no stories written about whether in fact of Mitch McConnell told the truth," Cruz said. RINO John Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said Cruz was "mistaken" in contending that McConnell had misrepresented plans regarding the Ex-Im Bank to other Republicans.  Cornyn added that if McConnell had, "I suspect you would find other voices joining that of the junior senator." These RINOs are as thick as thieves.

In opening the Sunday session, McConnell said that "when there is overwhelming bipartisan support for an idea, even if I oppose it, it doesn't require some 'special deal' to see a vote occur on that measure."  He went on to say, "This is the United States Senate, after all, where we debate and vote on all kinds of different issues."  What a sanctimonious blowhard this guy is.  He has absolutely no business being in a position of leadership.  Especially during such times as we now find ourselves, as a country simply trying to survive.  Times that McConnell, himself, played a considerable role in bringing about and is quite content to have continue.      

Also on Sunday, senators refused to support a maneuver by Cruz to skirt a procedural rule blocking an Iran-related amendment he sought to add to the highway bill. The measure would have blocked sanctions relief to Iran until the Islamic Republic recognized Israel's right to exist and freed four Americans who are missing or being held there.  That these supposed adults whom we have chosen to elect to such high office could behave so childishly says much more about them than anything they could ever say about Cruz.  Promises were made by a great number of people during the run up to the 2014 election, and McConnell was far from being the only liar.

Look, I think we can all safely agree that McConnell has been nothing short of a huge disappointment as well as an unmitigated disaster.  He has squandered what was very clearly the mandate that was handed to him last November.  He is a liar, there is simply no other word that adequately describes him.  If you doubt what I say simply look back over some of his campaign ads and campaign speeches from last year.  If you didn’t know better you’d swear one of these guys is an imposter, either the guy making the speeches or the guy in the Senate today.  Because they can’t both be the same guy.  And yet, sadly, they are.