The Tea Party's next big target: Texas

Republican Senate candidate Ted Cruz

/ www.tedcruz.org

In the wake of Richard Mourdock's Tea Party-propelled victory over Richard Lugar in the Indiana Senate primary on Tuesday, the Tea Party is now shifting its focus to the next big battle on its agenda: The Texas primary on May 29.

That race features the man who Tea Partiers see as the potential breakout candidate of the 2012 cycle: Ted Cruz, the 41-year-old former Solicitor General competing in the crowded Republican Senate primary. Brendan Steinhauser, Director of Federal and State Campaigns for Tea Party-aligned group FreedomWorks, told Hotsheet last year that he sees Cruz as "the biggest Tea Party rock star in the class of 2012," and his organization has been working hard on his behalf.

Cruz - whose calls for auditing the Federal Reserve, eliminating the IRS and significantly reducing the size of government have brought him the support of Ron Paul - is seeking the seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. His toughest competition appears to be the wealthy and well-known Texas Lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst. Which is why the Club for Growth PAC, which backed Mourdock and is backing Cruz, today announced it was spending $1 million on an ad characterizing Dewhurst as a moderate tax raiser. The spot doesn't mention Cruz, but encourages voters to "vote against Dewhurst on May 29th." (See at left.)

Cruz, whose father moved from Cuba to Texas at age 18, also has the support of the Tea Party Express. Many of his backers see him as the second coming of Marco Rubio, the Tea Party powered Florida senator being discussed as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney. If Cruz comes in second and can keep Dewhurst below 50 percent on May 29, there will be a runoff between the two men, giving Cruz more time to rally Tea Party support nationwide. (Dewhurst has been running attack ads against Cruz in an attempt to keep that from happening.)

With Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah looking likely to survive a Tea Party primary challenge, the Texas race offers the best opportunity beyond the Indiana race for the movement to assert its continued relevance in the face of perceptions that it has lost steam following the 2010 midterms.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe argues that Mourdock's victory "will re-ignite the spark of the 2010 midterm elections and energize the movement across the nation" on behalf of Cruz and other candidates favored by the Tea Party movement. The Indiana results, he said, reflect "just one more example of the hostile takeover of the Republican Party that we've been working on since 2009."

If Cruz and Mourdock make it to the Senate, they will join five senators with clear Tea Party ties: Kentucky's Rand Paul, Utah's Mike Lee, Wisconsin's Ron Johnson, Kansas' Jerry Moran and South Carolina's Jim DeMint, who generally prefer the confrontational stance embraced by Mourdock to the more collegial posture favored by Lugar.

[TimeToEvolve]

I can see why the Tea Bagging Bozos would be going after TexAss. Anyone who would vote for the failure of the war criminal George Bushoccio, the convicted felon Tom Delay or the clown Rick Perry must be a couple beers short of a 6-pack.

[nygurl1]

We can only hope that Texans were paying attention to the debates and now know for sure what a jerk rikki is and the repugs!

[quatermass2]

I'd be very happy if the Tea Baggers WOULD take over Texas and then secede. Please. Right away. And you can have Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, too. You can call it Goofyland.

[nygurl1]

I'd go with Tx, Ca and Az except they are too far apart.
Maybe the whole southern tier? And no trading!

[audemus]

Sarah Palin released a map that had 20 House Democrats on it, with crosshair images superimposed over their districts...she specifically mentioned Gabby Giffords...you know, the one who was shot in the head later on and nearly died, and who'll suffer the results of this the rest of her life ? Six people did die that day, including a nine year old child.

And who can forget Ted Nugent's rant about "chopping off their heads in November", or his colorful analogy of shooting a coyote for "pissing on your couch", or his best ones of all..."suck on my machine gun", and "we gotta kill the pig..." His little "tirade" got him investigated by the Secret Service.

Now we have a guy named Scott Boston, a Tea Partier saying, "We have to kill the Claire Bear...she's an evil monster...", referring to Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, who's up for re-election. The authorities took these words so seriously, that they increased her security...they must know something these nut-jobs don't as yet understand.

At the very least, these fruitcakes should be charged with inciting violence, arrested, and forced to defend their psychopathic B.S. in a court of law. In a country where access to firearms is commonplace, and the heat of politics can so easily stir up insane reactions, why do we keep letting these idiots inspire this sort of madness ?

If the Republican party is indeed in the midst of a "hostile takeover" from the extreme right, the ONLY way they can preserve what's left of their rapidly diminishing credibility, is to renounce this lunatic fringe in no uncertain terms, and do everything in their collective power, ( what's left of it ), to discredit and destroy this movement of madness.

Before we have another tragedy....

[nygurl1]

But that's what they want!!!
Then they will blame it on everyone but themselves and the sheep will listen!
I haven't figured it all out yet. Do the mindless always become reps? Are they born that way or are they trained from birth?
If one starts thinking on their own are they eliminated or just torn to shreds with lies?

[notparicular]

Republican /tea party candidates are vowing for substantially reducing the size of government. Fair enough. That will also add to the joblessness significantly. Joblessness increased because many state governments have laid off trachers, firemen, police significantly. At the same time the Republican nominee is shouting that he will create jobs. Sounds like they want to eat the cake at both ends. Do they know what they are talking about? I thought so.

[occupy_cbs]

Yesterday's victory by Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock in the Republican race improves Democrats' odds of gaining the Senate seat in November.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-08/lugar-s-tea-party-loss-dims-republican-senate-prospects


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chevyhotrod: "You much be daydreaming....lol..Indiana is a solid Republican State"
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Hey chevette -- that line came straight from 'Business Week,' hardly a 'librul' publication, and just for you history-revisionist republicans, Obama won Indiana in 2008, and there were several teabagging extremists that lost even in 2010 running for the Senate!

[occupy_cbs]

infantryman1968 May 10, 2012 9:18 AM EDT: "The Tea Party's next big target: Texas LOL!"


by infantryman1968 May 10, 2012 11:18 AM EDT: "The Tea Party's next big target: Texas LOL!"




Looks like senility has hit the "infant.LOL!" very hard today, with identical posts two hours apart!

The absolute irony of the teabagging extremists and party purity!

[infantryman1968]

The Tea Party's next big target: Texas


LOL!


CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NPR, and the W.H. Spokesman Robert Gibbs on the eve of the 2010 Midterms: "The Tea Party is irrelevent and will not make a difference in this election"

Since then, the TEA Party has chosen to fly below the radar like the Masons in order to avoid being crucified by "The Followers" and their Accomplices State Controlled Media. They have proclaimed them as "dead".

[erichsh]

Yup, the Tea Party is getting the job done at the ballot box - the only place that matters. No need to **** on the streets, block traffic, or throw rocks and bottles at the police.

[occupy_cbs]

I guess you actually 'think' that talking publicly about killing a sitting U.S. Senator in Missouri, is "flying below the radar," and rational for a teabagging extremist? LOL!

[erichsh]

Looks like the Tea Party still has considerable influence at the ballot box. Still waiting for the OWS Flea Baggers to produce their first viable candidate, though.

[occupy_cbs]

For crissakes, this is republican PRIMARY season with record LOW turnouts in every race, where an extreme MINORITY can actually win!

The general election in a presidential year is completely different!

[occupy_cbs]

askagain: "Those who support the Tea Party want a unified group of conservatives in a majority posistion who can successfully get things done."


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signseeker1717: "Ideological 'purity' is indeed a VERY dangerous concept, and is NOT the answer to our problems OR our future. Compromise is NOT a dirty word - in fact it is our national heritage; if the country's Founders had not been able to compromise, we wouldn't have a Constitution, and wouldn't even EXIST as a country."
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Sorry mr. teabagging extremist, but "signseeker" is absolutely correct, and you have no more of a chance of gaining a majority with your highly-partisan and far-right minority, than do far-left liberals in this highly-polarized country with changing demographics.

Isn't it ironic that those who cast themselves as the stoutest defenders of the Constitution and who promote the genius of the Founding Fathers are the same ones who can't accept that there is a Senate controlled by duly elected members of the other party, not to mention a House minority that opposes them? The Founders understood the political imperative and expressly designed a Congress that takes it all into account. To say that the opposition should roll over because Americans spoke clearly in the last election doesn't reckon for the fact that the Founders staggered elections for a purpose, and that voters have sent a Democrat to the White House and to the majority in the Senate in previous elections.

[addict42]

The tea party purity would rather have America resemble Somlia or Sudan than any modern western nation. Currently, we resemble Russia and China much more than modern Western Europe, Canada, or Austrailia/New Zealand. If more of these regressive GOP types win and Romney gets the White House, then expect a massive recession by 2014 and a much more rapid decline.

[occupy_cbs]

Yes, for a small minority of Americans to act this extreme and try to 'purify' the republican party by a hostile takeover, all the while dismissing 'compromise' as a dirty word, have completely forgotten how our Founding Fathers had to compromise in writing the Constitution.

[erichsh]

Both Republicans and Democrats invite the other party to compromise all the time - where "compromise" is defined as voting on THEIR respective bills. Both sides do it and you know it. The difference is that the only "compromising" you will accept is Republicans crossing the aisle.