Well, I guess economically unviable ethanol is one thing [Ben Carson] does not want to "bring into the free market". Fancy that. And I'll guarantee you that he was coached on that answer by his own - that's right - political consultants, instead of standing on free-market principle, as (to his credit) Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), alone of the Republican field, did a month ago. Which puts Dr. Carson on the same side of this issue as, among other presidential hopefuls.....Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Now is ethanol pandering a bipartisan quadrennial pastime extending back for decades? Sure it is. Does it matter very much in the big political, resurrecting-the-Old-Republic picture? Not really. But is it something typical of [the Washington Cartel], as opposed to an "outsider" "citizen-politician"? Absolutely.
Which means Dr. Carson hasn't wasted any time becoming the professional politician his naive supporters urged him to run for president to combat. [emphases added]
- Me, eight months ago
Yeah, about that - and I don't mean Ben Carson, either:
During a bus tour stop in Sioux Center, Iowa last night, Senator Ted Cruz expressed support for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) through 2022.
Responding to a question from an ethanol investor from Iowa about whether he would allow the landmark energy program to continue through its current expiration in 2022, Senator Cruz responded by expressing support for the RFS through 2022.
Including "breaking the blendwall" limiting ethanol mixing to ten percent, folks.
And it gets worse, as "Mr. Tea Party" took to the op-ed page of the Des Moines Register to double-down on what TPers, if they are to be consistent, can only be ragingly labeling his RINO sellout:
By this point in the campaign, many readers will have seen the furious coordinated effort being waged by Democrats and big-money lobbyists, who are together spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to convince Iowans that I oppose ethanol. Their charges are utter nonsense.
One of the reasons that Iowa’s own Representative Steve King — a ferocious advocate for Iowa farmers — is enthusiastically supporting my campaign is because, although I oppose government subsidies [except for ethanol], I am a passionate supporter of a free and fair energy marketplace…
The lobbyists’ sole focus is on the RFS, because as long as there is a federal government mandate, Washington remains front and center. Under a Cruz administration, that would change. [emphasis added]
Funny how Democrat and big-money lobbyist charges weren't "utter nonsense" a year ago:
Don’t expect U.S. Senator Ted Cruz to shuck his opposition to the ethanol-friendly Renewable Fuel Standard when he comes to the Iowa Ag Summit next weekend.
“Ethanol producers in Iowa have demonstrated that there is a real demand for their product and that demand will exist without the federal government getting in the middle,” Cruz said in an interview during the Conservative Political Action Conference....
Cruz has opposed the federal regulation that sets a minimum amount of renewable energy that must be blended into motor fuel. Iowa officials of both parties, including Governor Terry Branstad, have insisted the standard is vital to the industry and have bitterly opposed a move by the Obama administration to roll it back. [emphases added]
So what say you, my Tea Party friends? Are you ANGRY?!? Has Ted Cruz joined the hated "GOP establishment"? Is he now "Jeb Bush's poodle"? Is he to be excommunicated from the conservative movement and ridden out of D.C. on an electrified rail, tar & feathered and drawn & quartered, condemned to spend eternity in perfidious devilspawn hell playing pinochle with Paul Ryan and John Boehner, who will no doubt double-team him viciously forever?
Or does Ted Cruz want to clinch first place in the Iowa caucuses and stop Donald Trump from hostilely taking over and "fundamentally transforming" the Republican Party?
I don't agree with what Ted Cruz has done. He's definitely violated his principles in the hopes that it will yield him additional votes, just like the "professional Washington cartel cockroach politician" he's not supposed to be. But you know what? Anybody who runs for president is a "professional Washington cartel cockroach politician" by definition. Ted Cruz is simply no different. He can't be, because he's running to win, and in order to win, you have to "play the political game," and that's how the political game is played. Politics is not a pristinely clean, spotless process. You can't avoid a compromise here or there and getting some of the mire on you. Something that even "Mr. Tea Party" having clay feet ought to conclusively demonstrate.
It makes me like Senator Cruz a little more, actually, for, wittingly or unwittingly, admitting that he's an imperfect, fallible human being, just like the rest of us - and that includes Tea Partiers, no matter how much they don't want to admit it.
Will that drive TPers back to Donald Trump, who never made any pretense of not bowing down to King Corn from day one? Beats me. Maybe it will finally dawn on some of them that if it's perfection and purity they really want, they have no place to go, and will have to do like the rest of us, and choose the least of multiple evils. And as the 2016 race is shaping up, that's still Ted Cruz.
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