Ted Cruz Betrayed....By Reality

by JASmius

As Defundageddon dies a quiet but all too predictable death, I don't want to disturb the solemnity of the occasion, but I told you so:

1) Paul Ryan and John Boehner have convinced the House GOP caucus to propose a clean but short-term hike in the debt ceiling in exchange for negotiations on entitlement and budget reform.

2) Ryan and Boehner have new support for this compromise plan from....Tea Party Defundageddon hardliners the Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks.

3) Ryan, once a Tea Party hero but now obviously a filthy RINO sellout, did something for which TPers have mistaken Senator Cruz's fantastical manipulations - exercise leadership:

One of the earliest indications Wednesday that Republicans were prepared to move beyond the Obamacare fight was a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-WI1, headlined “Here’s How We Can End This Stalemate.” Ryan wrote extensively about cutting spending and reforming entitlement programs without once mentioning Obamacare. 

While the Obamacare defunding fight was driven by about 60 House conservatives and a handful of Republican senators, there is much broader support among Republican lawmakers for a deal that would avoid another financial crisis and help the GOP secure some of its top budget priorities.

To tweak a saying of Kahless The Unforgettable, "Destroying a party to win a war is no victory, and ending a battle to save a party is no defeat."  Particularly if that war cannot, at present, be won.  Chairman Ryan persuaded TPers and "establishmentarians" to stop beating each other with tire irons and come together again on issues and strategy on which they agree and can actually gain ground against the real enemy.  And in the process showed himself to be presidential timbre orders of magnitude moreso than Ted Cruz will ever be.

And I say that as one who believes it is precisely the debt ceiling and not shutting down (17% of) the government as the issue on which the necessary confrontation with the Obama Regime should be fought, and who views as highly dubious yet another concrete concession in exchange for "negotiations".

Captain Ed sums it up thusly:

The defunding strategy is dead, and it had no realistic chance of success as long as Harry Reid controlled the Senate and Barack Obama is President.  The groundswell of public opinion hasn’t turned against ObamaCare as much as it has against Washington, and in fact the shutdown fight arguably has partially eclipsed the utter collapse of the ACA exchanges.  Republicans need to look for ways to make gains on policies that are achievable in the short run, and allow ObamaCare to speak for its ruinous self at this point.  It looks like Heritage and FreedomWorks have finally agreed on those points, and perhaps most Republicans on Capitol Hill too:

“There is a school of thought that now that no one can get health care through the exchanges, maybe we should let Obamacare crash under its own weight,” Kingston said. “I think there is some discussion along that line.”

My Tea Party friends, when FW and Heritage Action have gone RINO, the jig is truly up.  The only remaining question is what they will learn from the abortive experience.

If Allahpundit has it pegged correctly - and I think he does - the answer will be, "Not much":

Let me ask one question in all earnestness of people who support the “defund” strategy: Is there any conceivable set of facts that would led you to conclude that the strategy itself had failed? Obviously there are ways that it could succeed. We could get a bunch of polls tomorrow showing rising opposition to O-Care followed by the White House deciding that a one-year delay might not be a bad idea after all. That’s a win for Cruz and Lee and a loss for all the RINO skeptics. Conversely, though, if Boehner caves and passes a clean CR/debt-ceiling hike an hour before we’re due to hit the debt limit, that wouldn’t be treated by “defunders” as a defeat for the strategy, it would be treated as a sellout by Boehner and the RINO hordes, who refused to stand firm. Which brings me back to my question: What would have to happen for someone in the “defund” camp to say that the strategy, not RINO sabotage, was mainly to blame for failure? If new polls showed opposition to O-Care staying flat or even declining, would that do it (since it would prove that no groundswell had materialized)? Some people will say “If the GOP loses the House” next year, but that’s not true: That’ll simply be dismissed as the result of disaffected conservatives staying home to protest all the RINOs who broke their hearts again. So, again, what would be the proof that the strategy itself, not Boehner’s treachery, has been a mistake? Is this theory that good things will happen if we just hold firm falsifiable?

And if it’s foolproof, ironclad, 100 percent guaranteed to work, why was our “ask” so small? Why demand defunding ObamaCare instead of repealing it outright or, say, passing a balanced-budget amendment? Why not close down the government until Obama resigns? I don’t get it.

Eeyore's question can be answered quite simply: the defund "strategy" was never about strategy.  It was all about emoting, catharsis, and "cajones".  It wasn't even about "fighting," but about being seen as fighting - for base fundraising and anti-GOP fratricide for its own sake.  And, of course, Ted Cruz's presidential ambitions - at which the "strategy" also failed miserably:

[M]uch of the country draws a blank on Republican Ted Cruz of Texas despite his 21-hour Senate speech before the shutdown. Only half in the poll were familiar enough with him to register an opinion. Among those who did, 32% viewed him unfavorably, 16% favorably.

He's still "Who?" to half the country, and to the other half he's effectively "Palinized" himself.  Nice job, Senator.  The term "just desserts" comes to mind.

But at least when he tires of Senate back-benching, he'll have an automatic Fox News show of his own waiting for him.  Hey, it worked from the other direction for Mike Huckadoodle.