Ted Cruz bats for Oklahoma conservative

The Hill ^ | June 19, 2014, 08:33 am | Alexandra Jaffe

[SoConPubbie]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is going to bat for T.W. Shannon, saying the former state Speaker will be a conservative fighter for Oklahoma in the U.S. Senate.

It's a rare entry into GOP primaries this cycle for Cruz, who has only endorsed in two open-seat races — this one and Nebraska’s Senate race, where his preferred candidate, Ben Sasse, won the nomination. 

Shannon is battling Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and a handful of other candidates in a GOP primary for retiring Sen. Tom Coburn's seat.

“In Oklahoma, there are a number of good Senate candidates, but T.W. Shannon is a conservative fighter,” Cruz says in the ad from the Senate Conservatives Fund.

“He has the courage to look Washington insiders in the eye, and say, ‘I don’t work for you, I work for the people of Oklahoma,’ ” Cruz adds.

The ad starts running Thursday and will air through the Tuesday primary. The group is spending $163,000 on the ads. 

Most polling has shown a tight race, with Lankford holding a varying lead. Shannon’s team has said he sees his most likely opportunity for success if the candidate can force a runoff with Lankford on Tuesday. 

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

[FatherofFive]

GO TED! Cruz - West 2016

But for those of you outside of OK, T W Shannon is a black/Indian conservative running for the seat Coburn vacated. Cruz/Palin and Mark Levin all endorsed TW.

[RitaOK]

I have forgotten what set off the complaint against Langford, whom I thought was first elected as a conservative, with TP conservative votes.

How did he lose so much of that, originally, conservative support.

Shannon is about perfect for Oklahoma and trust worthy for conservatives.

Langford was on TV recently in a capital hill interview sounding plenty conservative and well spoken, so I presume he is trying to redeem himself?

[RitaOK]

Nevermind. I see now Lankford is on the list of 49 pro amnesty representatives.

Thx.

[DoodleDawg]

He may need it. Oklahoma County District Attorney inquiry focuses on T.W. Shannon, Joy Hofmeister campaigns

[skeeter]

Is there any one in DC speaking for conservatives besides Ted Cruz?

[newheart]

The suggestion that someone like James Lankford is not a conservative is the kind of thinking that will destroy the conservative movement. We need the involvement of both Shannon and Lankford in Oklahoma politics. But as long as partisans choose to demonize rather than debate on the merits, the numbers of conservatives getting into the game will dwindle.

[SoConPubbie]

The suggestion that someone like James Lankford is not a conservative is the kind of thinking that will destroy the conservative movement. We need the involvement of both Shannon and Lankford in Oklahoma politics. But as long as partisans choose to demonize rather than debate on the merits, the numbers of conservatives getting into the game will dwindle.

Sorry, but when the guy you are supporting, Lankford, decides that Amnesty is a good and necessary thing, then you could not be more wrong.

Here are the pro-Amnesty Republican congressmen. Did yours make the list? :

The two leading contenders to replace amnesty guy Eric Cantor are making the ALIPAC list of 49 traitors in the Republican dominated House of Representatives, with the head of Americans for Legal Immigration, William Gheen still holding out on Jeb Hensarling. “No opinion yet on Hensarling,” Gheen told CiR late Wednesday.

Gheen just completed putting together the contact information and proof of amnesty quotes on all of the 49 lawmakers at his Traitor List thread. And, in case you already didn’t know where Paul Ryan (R-WI) stands, here’s the money guru’s quote: I do support what (Gang of 7) are doing. I think they put out a good product.”

. . . . . . . .

Sam Johnson (R-TX 03); Michael Kelly (R-PA); Peter King (R-NY); Raul Labrador (R-ID); James Lankford (R-OK); Devin Nunes (R-CA); David Reichert (R-WA); Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL); Paul Ryan (R-WI); Aaron Schock (R-IL); Chris Stewart (R-UT); David Valadao (R-CA); Greg Walden (R-OR); Daniel Webster R-FL); Don Young (R-AK); Ted Poe (R-TX); Bob Goodlatte (R-VA);Trey Radel (R-FL) resigned; Renee Ellmers (R-NC); Eric Cantor (R-VA DEFEATED BY AMNESTY STANCE).

Until we as conservatives quit making excuses for obvious liars like Lankford, we are never going to be able to mount an effective fight against those in our party who do not have our (citizens) best interests at heart or the best interests of our country.

[RitaOK]

Thx for the story, dawg.

Prater appears to have smoke and no fire. A typical use for smoke is to fog up the place, interfere with momentum and just generally distract from the normal flow of democracy.

newheart...

As for pitting conservative voters against one another, there are few good reasons to do it.

But ONE good reason is AMNESTY for illegals.

We can argue the differences between blanket AMNESTY and selective AMNESTY, but deeming certain classifications of thousands and thousands and thousands of illegals to be (selectively) worthy of AMNESTY, is unjust, against the law and enrages most all conservatives. Biting the hand that put you over the top is really foolish, too.

Lawlessness is dangerous to our future. Lankford needs to go on this count alone.

[newheart]

Yeah, I saw the list of so-called "traitors" and yes, Lankford is on that dubious list of 49. But the question for me is how you define amnesty. So far it appears that anyone who is reluctant to hold minor children responsible for the actions of their parents is considered to be in favor of amnesty, a RINO, not a conservative, and, according to Coach is Right, a traitor. That is the kind of bombastic rhetoric I was referring to.

Lankford has been consistent. He unquestionably supports requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship. "We must protect our borders. Anything beginning with the word illegal should not be as tough as we have made it. Illegal means illegal, period. The federal government has the responsibility to protect our borders and enforce immigration policies that benefit the citizens of the United States. Secure the borders first and enforce existing immigration laws. We must stop illegal crossings at every border and we must stop turning a blind eye to illegal alien employment."

But somehow because he takes a slightly different stand than those who demand ideological purity in the extreme—whether out of compassion or out of pragmatism based on a significant Hispanic population in his district—he is now a traitor?

The accusation of traitor can only come from someone who brooks no dissent and allows for no freedom of conscience. And frankly, totalitarian from the right is just as evil as it is from the left.

I for one will proudly vote for Lankford next Tuesday. If he loses, I will be more than happy to support Shannon in the general. If that makes me a traitor, then it is certainly not a traitor to the principles on which this country was founded. Both men are conservative and men of faith and character. I repeat my original assertion: As long as partisans choose to demonize rather than debate on the merits, the numbers of conservatives getting into the game will dwindle.

[SoConPubbie]

There are real and sincere differences between Lankford and Shannon, conservative differences. It is telling that when given the chance in one of the Reddest states, between two candidates who are Republican, you choose the lesser of the two conservatives.

T.W. Shannon on ObamaCare:

Repeal ObamaCare

ObamaCare must be repealed. Government intervention has broken the health-care system. Costs are rising at unacceptable rates and too many people are losing the quality health-care plans they had. ObamaCare cannot work because it puts Washington bureaucrats between the patient and the doctor, which is why I strongly oppose it. I will fight for free-market driven solutions that lower costs, reduce red tape and encourage competition. As speaker of the Oklahoma House, I worked to restrict the further expansion of government-provided insurance, blocking what would have been a massive expansion of a Medicaid. America can start addressing its health-care problems when it puts patients and physicians in charge of health-care decisions instead of bureaucrats.

Lankford on Obamacare:

Lankford wants to gut Obamacare but said the best way to make progress is "four yards and a cloud of dust," not always Hail Mary passes. He told one attendee that while he had issues with the IRS, abolishing it was not realistic. And his biggest applause lines came after he celebrated Attorney General Eric Holder's cancellation of an Oklahoma event on Thursday -- and when he pitted his battles as ones against Democrats, not Republicans.

[RitaOK]

In this country we parents are held liable and responsible for our kids from how to load them as we leave the hospital(!) until they are 18 years of age, (increasingly to the point of jail when they are truant) and now for their college expense after they are found to have spit in our eye, as one recent court case proves!

We conservatives raise hell and flames when we as parents are circumvented by public schools on the sly for myriad of reasons, and Planned Parenthood birth control devices and abortion arrangements, all on the sly.

You are saying loud and clear that a moral gap as wide as the Grand Canyon must be plowed through, for illegals. They come here illegally with their illegal kids to suck up citizen-only benefits, reaping favoritism that insults us and assaults both the pocketbook and the security of working Americans who have to pa for these leachs, because we are under the boot heel of those in office forcing down our throat. No other country in the world tolerates this behavior against their citizens.