Tag Archives: GOP Primaries

Is There Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About (cont.)?

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) fired his communications director and top spokesman Rick Tyler, after Tyler promoted a video that wrongly depicted Sen. Marco Rubio (Est.-Florida) as trash-talking the Bible.

The Cruz campaign linked to a story showing a video of Rubio walking by a Cruz staffer and Cruz’s father Rafael, who were reading the Bible in a hotel lobby.  The subtitles on the video showed Rubio saying to the staffer, “Got a good book there, not many answers in it.”

Rubio communications director Alex Conant later tweeted out the same video with what he says are the correct subtitles.  Speaking of the Bible, Rubio says, “All the answers are in there.”

If there is a single person out there who doesn’t think this kind of campaign trickery begins and ends with the Junior Senator himself, then Red has some interesting investment options for you.   Tyler is a fall guy that had to go when this kind of abject dirty trick was exposed.

Is There Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About (cont.)?

The Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) sponsored website TheRealRubioRecord.com has posted a photo of Sen. Marco Rubio (?-Florida) – GASP! – actually shaking hands with the President of the United States.  This treasonous act of actually extending your hand to the duly elected leader of our country would clearly disqualify Sr. Rubio from himself being President.   For his part, Cruz claims to have never shaken hands with any Democrat – preferring instead to do the “old tie trick” where he points to a spot on your tie and then flicks your chin.  What a card!

But the revelation of this scandalous photo of a sitting Senator displaying common courtesy (something not likely to be a problem in a Cruz administration), has instead again raised questions about the tactics of Cruz’s campaign.  Why? Because it is an obviously altered photo.  As a matter of first impression, Red would note – who shakes with their left hand?  We know the Kenyan, Muslim, Socialist, Terrorism-Sympathizing President is, of course, left-handed.  But even Steve Carlton shook with his right hand – that is, when he wasn’t throwing a high hard one at your head.  Second, the Rubio campaign has clearly shown that the photo is a poorly executed “Photoshop” job.

Todd Harris, a Rubio mouthpiece, insisted, “This is not Marco Rubio. This person, we don’t know who that is, but they Photoshopped Marco’s face onto somebody else. This is how phony and how deceitful the Cruz campaign has become. Marco Rubio doesn’t own that tie, he doesn’t own that watch, he doesn’t own that suit . . . There is so little honesty left in the Cruz campaign that they’re actually willing to Photoshop a fellow Republican’s face onto the body of some other person to completely invent an attack on Marco Rubio.”

Rubio’s campaign backed up its claim by showing the stock photo used by Cruz.

View image on Twitter

But all this sniping may actually backfire on Rubio, Red knows that true red-blooded, patriotic, evangelical Christian voters in South Carolina would never truck with anyone foolish enough to not take a knee shot at Obama’s nads when close enough to actually shake hands with the devil incarnate.

Is There Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About (cont.)?

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) tried to trick potential Ben Carson caucus goers into supporting him on Monday night by falsely claiming that Carson was dropping out of the race.  After it was reported that Carson was going home to Florida on Monday night, Cruz and his campaign quickly tried to create the impression that Carson was ending his campaign.

Just as the caucuses were beginning to meet at 7 p.m., the official Ted Cruz mobile app sent a message to some Iowans.

“CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa.  Make sure to tell all of your peers at the caucus supporting Carson that they should coalesce around the true conservative who will be in the race for the long haul: TED CRUZ!”

Carson denied that he was quitting, but at least some damage may have already been done.   Numerous caucus attendees have reported that Cruz supporters attempted  to sway Carson voters by announcing that Carson would be dropping out of the race.

For his part, Carson has described Cruz’s tactics as “dirty tricks” and has called on Cruz to fire anyone involved in the “shenanigans.”  That seems unlikely as Ted is probably unwilling to fire himself.  “If Ted Cruz doesn’t know about this, then he clearly needs to very quickly get rid of some people in his organization,” Carson said. “And if he does know about it, isn’t this the exact kind of thing the American people are tired of?”

Is there Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About (cont.)?

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) is turning to desperate measures to win in Iowa.  The junior Senator from Texas is apparently afraid his campaign is in serious danger of implosion without a bravo showing in the Hawkeye State.  The smell of desperation was apparent when the Tea Party hero’s campaign sent out the following mailer to Iowa voters.

You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record. Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday’s caucuses.

If that weren’t misleading enough, the mailer also included a chart with the name of the voter and his or her neighbors and their voting “grade” and “score.”

Voter registration and voter history records are public records distributed by the Iowa Secretary of State and/or county election clerks. This data is not available for use for commercial purposes – use is limited by law. Scores reflect participation in recent elections. 

This is wrong on so many levels.  First, it was specifically designed to look like an official government document.  This raised the ire of Iowa Secretary of State, Paul Pate, who issued his rejoinder.

 Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law. Accusing citizens of Iowa of a “voting violation” based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act. There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses.

And if that weren’t enough, Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker has done some more investigation and it appears that the voting scores given to the targeted voter and his or her neighbors were simply made up by Cruz staffers.

After looking at several mailers posted online, I was more curious about how the Cruz campaign came up with its scores. On all the mailers I saw, every voter listed had only one of three possible scores: fifty-five per cent, sixty-five per cent, or seventy-five per cent, which translate to F, D, and C grades, respectively. Iowans take voting pretty seriously. Why was it that nobody had a higher grade?

In Iowa, although voter-registration information is free and available to the public, voter history is not. That information is maintained by the secretary of state, who licenses it to campaigns, super PACs, polling firms, and any other entity that might want it. So was the Cruz campaign accurately portraying the voter histories of Iowans? Or did it simply make up the numbers?

It’s Ted Cruz for crying out loud!  Of course he made it up.  That’s what he does.

Image from bloviatingzeppelin.net.

Is there Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About(cont.)?

You know who one of those millions of Americans who’s lost their health care because of Obamacare? That would be me. I don’t have health care right now. I had purchased an individual policy and Blue Cross Blue Shield canceled all their individual policies in the state of Texas effective December 31st. So our health care got canceled.”     Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas).

A very moving story, that is if it wasn’t completely fabricated. The whole tale smelled from the beginning.  You don’t lose your health care with a single letter.  Moreover, if true, then Cruz is a moron for not securing another plan from the many choices.  More importantly, it was pure bullshit as a part of Cruz’s agenda to destroy the American healthcare system.   The Cruz campaign had to quickly fess up and throw Ted’s insurance broker under the bus.  Cruz was automatically enrolled in another plan by his provider.  Since the Affordable Care Act is actually working, Cruz has to lie and make up stuff to paint a picture of failure.

Quote for the Day

“Mr. Cruz needs to study old Ronald Reagan clips to understand the difference between having strong beliefs and being an insufferable jerk about them.”

Bret Stephens from What Ted Cruz Values in the WSJ.  A must read.

Perry Endorses Cruz – Big Whoop

FoxNews is reporting that twice-failed GOP presidential candidate and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas).  “I am convinced without a doubt that on day one, this very committed conservative American will be ready to be commander-in-chief,” Perry told Fox News.

And exactly what is that belief based on?  Ted’s vast military experience?  Ted’s abuse of an automatic weapon to fry bacon? Ted’s desire to see glowing sand in Syria?  His bloviation and bluster?   Please tell us, oh great failed candidate.

Is it Just Red, or is Ted Cruz’s New Ad Just Plain Weird?

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) launched a new TV ad in New Hampshire featuring hordes of well-dressed “accountants and lawyers” invading the US across what is supposed to be the Rio Grand and a border fence (notably, no one is seen actually scaling the fence).  The focus of the ad is a claim that if the aforementioned hordes of accountants, lawyers and presumably other professionals were illegally crossing the border and driving down salaries for those occupations, then the swells would be up in arms about illegal immigration.  First, this presupposes that illegal immigration has actually suppressed wages and implies that GOP policies which have helped to keep real incomes flat ever since Reagan’s inauguration have nothing to do with the problem.  Second, it’s just plain weird.

Was He Lying Then or is He Lying Now?

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) is now facing his own problem on immigration and it does not stem from his sometimes questioned Constitutional qualification to hold the highest office in the land.  Rather, Cruz’s position on a path to legalization for undocumented aliens has undergone a rather dramatic shift.  When the so-called Gang of Eight bill was up in the Senate, Cruz offered an amendment that would have created a method for those currently in the US illegally to achieve permanent resident status – if not actual citizenship.  Cruz now claims that it was a “poison pill” amendment intended to sabotage the bill.  But what did Cruz say back then.  Let’s here from the good Senator himself on the Senate floor – May 21, 2013.

They [undocumented aliens] would still be eligible for legal status and indeed, under the terms of the bill, they would be eligible for LPR [Lawful Permanent Resident] status as well so that they are out of the shadows, which the proponents of this bill repeatedly point to as their principal objective, to provide a legal status for those who are here illegally to be out of the shadows. This amendment would allow that to happen, but what it would do is remove the pathway to citizenship so that there are real consequences that respect the rule of law and that treat legal immigrants with the fairness and respect they deserve.

And a second point to those advocacy groups that are so passionately engaged. In my view if this committee rejects this amendment —  and I think everyone here views it is quite likely this committee will choose to reject this amendment —  in my view that decision will make it much much more likely that this entire bill will fail in the House of Representatives. I don’t want immigration reform to fail. I want immigration reform to pass. And so I would urge people of good faith on both sides of the aisle if the objective is to pass common sense immigration reform that secures the borders, that improves legal immigration and that allows those who are here illegally to come in out of the shadows, then we should look for areas of bipartisan agreement and compromise to come together. And this amendment, I believe if this amendment were to pass, the chances of this bill passing into law would increase dramatically. And so I would urge the committee to give it full consideration and to adopt the amendment.

Now I would suggest to all of those who passionately want to see this program fixed, that saying it’s all-or-nothing if there’s no path to citizenship, quote, there is no reform, tying immigration reform hostage to a path to citizenship is not a strategy to pass a bill. It’s a strategy to create partisan division. It’s a strategy that may well result in more political battles. But it’s not a strategy to fix the problem and so I would urge everyone on this committee to roll up our sleeves and fix the problem in a humane way that secures the border, gets serious about fixing that problem, that expands and improves legal immigration and that does not unfairly treat legal immigrants by removing a path to citizenship but allowing as this legislation does a legal status for those who are here illegally. That would be reform that a great many people across this country, both Republican and Democrat, would embrace and I would urge the committee to consider the amendment.

So Ted told us, that he “wants immigration reform to pass,” that he was in favor of “common-sense immigration reform,” that he “wanted to fix the problem in a humane way,” and that he was in favor of “legal status for those who are here illegally.” But really  folks, he was just joshing, pulling our leg, he didn’t really mean it, he wasn’t sincere, just doing his act.  His website now says nothing about such measures and instead is a laundry list of options to deal with undocumented aliens as harshly as possible.

So as the old joke goes, “How can you tell when Ted Cruz is lying?”  His lips are moving.