Posted on 01/17/2014 6:35:40 PM PST by SoFloFreeper
He isn't giving GOP primary endorsements, but Tea Party leader Sen. Ted Cruz calls newly-minted Virginia Senate candidate Ed Gillespie a friend, and he blasted the Republican's opponent, Democratic Sen Mark Warner.
The Texan told the Hill's Cameron Joseph: "I like Ed Gillespie, he is a friend of mine, he's a good man. That's ultimately a decision for the voters of Virginia."
...Cruz has vowed to stay out of GOP primaries.
But their friendship is more than talk: Gillespie and his wife contributed Cruz's upstart campaign in 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
What say you all?
My theory: we STILL have to win elections with Republicans. We cannot count on any conservative Democrats to exist any more...no Zell Millers. But we can count on there being conservative Republicans.
Even if they aren't Tea Partiers.
Thoughts?
Unlike the GOPe, the base voters are team players. If an elected official acts like a statist, we are going to abandon them. What say you?
Jamie Radtke likes him too.
I didn’t know he had donated to Cruz early on. That’s not a bad sign. He’s likely all we have in Virginia that’s viable, and at least he knows how to campaign. I don’t think he’ll win, but... meh.
Take what we can get. If we can divert money away from other races, that’s good news.
I think we may have gotten a little too casual with the term “GOP-e,” and it applies now to anybody who diverges in any way on any issue from what each person appears to believe to be his own personal purity. There are definitely people who are GOP-e (McCain, Romney, etc.) but someone who is firm on some conservative issues, less firm on others, etc. should not be tarred with the same brush.
It is absolutely true that we have got to win elections with Republican candidates, simply because that’s the only way conservatives are going to have any hope of having any influence. The so-called “Tea Party” candidates (I say so-called because everybody defines them according to his particular point of view) in general haven’t had a great track record of wins, partly because a lot of them don’t have much political experience and don’t know how to conduct themselves, and partly because they are usually unable to collect much financial support - but most of all because they simply don’t have enough appeal and can’t express their ideas in any way that attracts enough people to put them over the top.
Granted, the IRS campaign to stifle Tea Party groups is certainly preventing good candidates from emerging. But in general, I think we have to stop calling people “GOP-e” as soon as they make some statement that somebody somewhere doesn’t like. Everybody needs to consider what things are most important in “their” candidate, and it could be that there will have to be some trade-offs.
I think Cruz is being realistic, and I have already heard him criticized for some other less-than-pure candidate he supported. But if he wants to do more than just be a lone voice screaming in the wilderness and actually get things done, he knows he has got to work to get other people elected to support him, if not in everything, at least in the important things.
Cruz a RINO now?
Well he's a Harvard educated attorney and his wife is a managing director at the vampire squid of finance, so who knows, LOL.
Its bad if there is another more conservative candidate running
Though this would be Cruz’s first “ugh” endorsement....
Sarah Palin has some real bad ones....McCain over Hayworth....Jeff Flake in his Senate primary...party insider Sarah Steelman in senate primary in MO (Todd Akin was a solid conservative who Palin sandbagged)
Gillespie is a RINO. You can be friends with these people, but ultimately they will stab you in the back.
Sarah Palin supported McCain, Rand Paul supported Mitchie, now Cruz sort-of supports Gillespie. They each have their personal alliances that make no sense politically. Each can be forgiven.
But I’d rather hve Howie Lind — or whichever other constitutional conservative decides to run (Obenshain?)
And wouldn't we all be better off with Senator Sarah Steelman (R-MO) than Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO)?
Isn’t Gillespie the one who, as RNC chairman, said that there is no room in the Republican Party for limited government people?
being polite is part of being a politician.
following them to close can try more than one’s tummy.
elections have consequences.
hopefully ed is no norm coleman
or worse ..
If the Gop has any clues left, maybe they will advance Ted and not seek to destroy him as well.
I’d be gracious to Ed Gillespie if he sent me a campaign contribution.
But the Ed Gillespie I recall clearly is the one who told Rush Limbaugh on his radio show “That’s not going to happen” when Rush brought up the notion of getting rid of government departments like Energy and so on.
The conversation happened when Gillespie was in the White House working for W Bush.
That makes Ed Gillespie a GOPe RINO in my book......
Seems like those who have the highest "standards" are those who have the winning game plan - for the Dems.
Amen.
They had to work out a way to get 1 candidate against Akin if they wanted him out of the race.
There was a huge problem there because the other semi conservative candidate Brunner said something stupid about the crosshairs ad and rhetoric.
Forgive my ignorance, but who is "they"?
Republicans who didn’t want Akin to win.
They had to work out a way to get Brunner or Steelman to drop out. Or all the conservatives should have colluded to endorse one of them.
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