Democrats might well be spending the day after the unsuccessful attempt to end debate on the nomination of Chuck Hagel pondering why President Obama and Vice President Biden were so obsessed with shoving an unqualified and incompetent candidate down the throats of the Senate. Politico has a fascinating story about why President Obama and Vice President Biden were unwilling to listen to sense about Hagel and went all in on the nomination even after clear signs of trouble about the former senator were apparent. But owning up to the sorry truth that what the White House likes best about Hagel are exactly the qualities that have made his confirmation such a tough slog — weakness on Iran, hostility to Israel and an unwillingness to stand up for the needs of the department he’s slotted to run — would require liberals to ask some tough questions about the president’s goals for his second term. Instead, the chattering classes are obsessing about the alleged bad manners of one of the newest additions to the U.S. Senate.
The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus speaks for many in the capital today when she slams Texas Senator Ted Cruz for being mean to Chuck Hagel. Cruz had the temerity to demand five years of financial records from the nominee rather than the two he provided. He’s curious as to whether more detailed financial documents will reveal some embarrassing details as to who has funded some of the groups Hagel is involved with or paid for speaking engagements he has undertaken. These sound like reasonable questions to me and probably most Americans who think there’s nothing wrong with more transparency. This is a stand Democrats had no shame in adopting last year when they demanded that Mitt Romney reveal his tax returns and every last detail of his financial existence but as far as the Washington establishment is concerned, Cruz’s questions were a “smear.” They think he’s a bumptious, arrogant right-winger who doesn’t know his place and the chattering classes will do their best to besmirch his reputation until he pipes down. They shouldn’t hold their breath.
I don’t agree with Cruz on every issue. I think his qualms about the bipartisan immigration reform proposal put forward by other senators are unpersuasive and worry whether his desire to cut back spending places him among those who would denude our national defense. Yet what really bothers Washington liberals about Cruz is that he didn’t come to Washington to enjoy the benefits of being a member of one of the most exclusive and powerful club in the world — the U.S. Senate — and to play the time honored go-along to get-along game that greases the wheels of the country’s big government spending addiction. He intends to stand up for his principles and speak out.
I’m skeptical that more digging in Hagel’s financial records will reveal anything that will derail his nomination. But there’s nothing offensive about Cruz’s insinuation that Hagel might have something to hide. As has been made clear in just the last couple of days, what we already know Hagel’s extreme views about making nice with Iran and offensive statements about Jews and Israel may be just the tip of the iceberg. What the Washington establishment and the White House wanted was a collegial confirmation process for Hagel that would give the appearance of scrutiny rather than a genuine investigation about his suitability for a sensitive and powerful post. And that is something that a man like Cruz won’t tolerate.
In his first weeks in office, Cruz has not played the usual role of freshman senators and kept quiet. Instead, as another Politico story noted, he has stepped on a lot of toes and the owners of those toes aren’t happy. They say it will decrease his influence. Others will agree with Marcus about his bad manners and do their best to shun him.
About that, I have two thoughts.
One is that liberals don’t always think ill of freshman senators who don’t defer to senior colleagues. When Barack Obama arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2005 he might not have been as tough as Cruz but he wasn’t shy about asserting himself. As one senator told me, he showed up acting as if he had been there for 20 years and his colleagues didn’t like it one bit.
The other is that all the blather we’ve been hearing lately about the virtues of compromise can be overrated. It is true that politics is the art of the possible and that getting anything done requires accommodation as well as advocacy. But the problem with Ted Cruz isn’t so much that he strikes some Washingtonians as obnoxious as it is that he won’t play the part assigned to him in their vision of the future of the Republican Party. We may need dealmakers but we also need politicians who take ideas more seriously than the kabuki dance of Capitol Hill manners.
The Hagel contretemps illustrated perfectly why we need people in the Senate who won’t pull their punches. Given the commitment of the president to his nominee, stopping an unsuitable and dangerous man like Hagel from being given the Pentagon required courage and a willingness to drop the faux courtesy that would have allowed him to skate through without tough questions or real scrutiny.
I daresay Ted Cruz isn’t bothered by Marcus’s jibe that he isn’t going to win Senator Congeniality. Neither should the voters of Texas who sent up there to speak up and not fit in. A few more like him wouldn’t do the Congress any harm.
If only the other 99 senators were half as great as Ted Cruz!! The establishment and the left are scared of this amazing conservative. Keep up the good work senator!
I wish my Senator was Cruz. Instead i have Chuck "the Hagel is really pro-Israel Judenrat" Schumer and Kristen "pandering to race-baiters" Gillibrand. n nI hope Cruz keeps it up. It is about sometime someone somewhere spoke truth to power. Simply because Obama won reelection doesn't mean he gets to destroy the USA nor lead the charge in committing genocide against Israel. It most certainly also doesn't mean we have to go quietly into that good night any of us, especially a US Senator elected to defend the Constitution and the people of the USA.
Ruth Marcus is a an Hispanic hating racist.
Ted Cruz could be the next president. This would have been impossible only a few years ago. Barack Obama's election in 2008 changed everything forevermore. A first term U.S. senator does indeed have a chance.
If Ted Cruz is causing Hagel trouble, then I'm all for him. Anyway, it's undemocratic, un-American, stupid, unfair, and just plain rotten to have a 'seniority' system in the House or Senate. One of our unsavory Senators or Representatives is elected (crooked or otherwise) just as well as all the others and represents people deserving the same consideration as those who keep electing the same fools over and over again.
Right on, Continue Ted Cruz. Screw em if they don't like what you're doing. Step on all of the toes you want. We're sick of RINO's screwing up this country.
How Dare Ted Cruz? nJewish Groups Must End Silence on Hagel nInterest in Hagel Speeches Isn’t Racist nGOP Must Hang Tough on Hagel nIs a Hagel Filibuster Still Possible? nThese are today’s Israeli hymn mantras to put Hegel’s votes to death. Republican Frugals gonna walk out this after to deliberately celebrate President’s (Jack Daniel’s) Day and most-importantly a toss for Death-to-Hagel as their Zionists masters in Tel Aviv told them to March away. Merkley’s filibuster requires 60 votes for Hagel to be confirmed. Harry Reid’s Cloture was 58-40. Remember the Senate is only 100. It means Hagel most get the Warring Industries kidnap Louisiana’s David Vitter dog to extort him to vote in favor or Obama use the Executive Branch to veto the filibuster and buy real Dante Alighieri hat for Antonin Scalia in order let Hagel go to Brussels and chair NATO summit this week. It’s a walking Circus. n
nWell for one, he will fit in well with the rest of the conga line of bumbling buffoons that make up the Obama administration.
I want to donate money to Ted Cruz's re-election campaign. He's my kind of un-politician.
Ted Cruz is doing exactly what we Texans elected him to do….kick ass and take names
Ted Cruz deserves a medal. Hagel is NOT QUALIFIED. Hagel knows it, the President knows it, and we know it. Next case!!!
Not qualified at all.
Cruz has no desire to be the darling of the liberal media elites in DC and NY, and for that the people of Texas will continue to send him to Washington to fight the parasitic Left. Fight the power, Senator Cruz!
why are you "skeptical" that they won't find something to derail Hagel, Jonathan? this is an odd trope I've seen in almost every anti-Hagel article I've read. n nevery new thing we learn about him is one more straw on the camel's back. those of us who think Hagel would be a disaster as SecDef should say out loud that he shouldn't, and WON'T, be confirmed. there's nothing wrong with putting a positive spin on it. but when you keep repeating that it's all for naught, it makes people say "Oh well, then why bother if it's not going to make a difference?" n nwe already have the spineless jellyfish at AIPAC and ADL and the other mainstream Jewish organizations refusing to become involved. those of us who still retain some backbone need to stand up for what's right. n n
Cruz couldnt get elected dog catcher outside of Texas. This thinlyr nveiled attack on the President is n Tgoing to work. Haegel will be ther nnext Secty of Defence. He has what practicaly none of the”warruors”r nwho write for this reactionary rag, and probably even fewer of itsr nfaithful readers,a first hand painful knowledge of what war is all about,r nThe chicken hawks who beat the drums of war for Iraq having learnedr nnothing are doing again for war with Iran,no problem just a quickr n” surgical” strike and all will be well, the Iranians might even welcomer nus with open arms. Have you people no shame!
I wish Cruz could run for President, but he was born in Canada. I guess we have a Kenyan in there now, we can bend the rule for a Canadien,
Not a doubt about it– we conservatives who worked beside Ted and his great campaign staff to take him from the obscurity of 2% name recognition to the U.S. Senate are very pleased with our Senator. We elected him to speak truth to power and to tell the Emperor that he has no clothes. That is precisely what he is doing as he clearly articulates the efficacy of true opportunity conservatism that leaves picking winners and losers to the Free Market that is limited only by guidelines set to maintain a free and fair playing ground. r nr nGO, Cruuuuz!
Disheartening to me is that I heard that the filibuster will be used as a bargaining device and it is still possible for Hagel to be approved. Oh, I hope not. This is a very well written blog. Sent me to the dictionary! It is excellent in observations, and I need to follow this blog.