Mark Salter with McCain
Posted on 10/01/2015 7:17:38 AM PDT by VinL
Although I find Sen. Ted Cruz’s “lonely man of principle” act as tired as it is phony, I should give the devil his due. Cruz has given Americans exasperated with Washington gridlock hope that Congress can, when sufficiently motivated, find consensus and act.
In this instance, the consensus is that Ted Cruz is a jackass. The bipartisan action taken was to deny him a vote on the Senate floor, and the additional speaking time he desired for another unctuous tribute to himself, courtesies that are routinely granted all senators. But hey, it’s hard to get Democrats and Republicans to agree on anything these days. So, congratulations, Senator Cruz, you trailblazer.
I worked on Capitol Hill for the better part of two decades. There might have been other occasions when a senator couldn’t get a colleague to “second” his amendment, but I can’t recall any. It’s also unusual for senators not to agree to give a member who has exhausted his allotted speaking time a few more minutes to finish his remarks.
Then again, I can’t recall any senator who was as nearly universally loathed by his colleagues as Cruz. There have been others who weren’t likeable. There were plenty who were self-interested and who preened and blustered as often as Cruz does—and who routinely elicited senatorial smirks and rolled eyes. There have been senators who frequently forced their colleagues to cast difficult and unpopular votes. And, of course, there is a long list of senators who ran for president and treated the Senate floor as a campaign stop. (And for some of them it worked). But no senator in my memory did all that with such abandon and was disliked with as much intensity as is Ted Cruz.
The late Minnesota progressive Paul Wellstone
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Not this FRiend, I wholeheartedly agree with you-McCain is scum. He’s been resting on the laurels of being a POW for decades, as if that will excuse any corruption he engages forever after, and even worse, excuse his absolute contempt for Americans, including the ones he puts on his act for, to het their votes.
If you stand back and take a look at the big picture of Congress here is what you see:
The threat of a shutdown that will blamed on the GOP dominates everything. The Dems have the upper hand because of the 2/3 vote required for a veto and, much more commonly the 60 vote requirement for cloture in the Senate. So the Dems can always force a shutdown of the Government.
THIS IS CONSIDERED GOSPEL BY BOTH Republicans and Democrats in Congress with very few exceptions. Ted Cruz is the major exception.
Also Gospel in Congress: Self-Preservation (re-election) is your main job. That’s universal.
But imagine this: The GOP gets up the nerve to go nuclear in the Senate and Obama vetos shutting down the government. Imagine further that the GOP launches a PR campaign and WINS. Obama backs down.
That single event would bring power back to Congress. If the GOP fails to do so then in 2017 with control of the Presidency, the Senate and the House it will still be the Dems threatening a government shutdown and in full control of the Congressional agenda.
He brags about his two decades on Capital Hill. THAT is the problem.
Flak. Target. Perfect example.
Talk about phony...Real Clear Politics could teach a course in phoniness. They are, in my mind, the most disingenuous reporters of political news.
What a ridiculous hit piece. Salter can choke on his career disappointment for all I care. There are plenty of us who are former, and current, Senate staffers who know that not only is this piece conveniently forgetting several examples of Senators being treated just the way Cruz is, but that the Senate is also fundamentally broken and has been for decades. We respected and support Ted Cruz because he’s not going to sell his soul to get a second on an amendment. If Ted Cruz says ethanol subsidies are bad for the country, he’s going to vote and act that way.
By the way, those calling for McConnell’s resignation should be aware that the Majority Leader’s chair would, with near certainty, then fall to either Cornyn or McCain. All hail the new master, same as the old master.
He takes his left up
And sticks it in his mouth and shakes it all about
He takes the left foot out, sticks the right foot in
Then he starts it all again
He lies like thief
That's been caught among the sheep
That's what he's all about
The McLame Game.
With all apologies to Snakes, McCain is a loathsome reptile, a viper who strikes his own people. He needs to be retired.
The comments on the article are heartening, though. 95% in support of Cruz and calling the author a jackass. :)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/13/us/13mccain.xlarge1.jpg
having worked on Senator McCain’s staff for 19 years (as of 2008)
Mark Salter is an American speechwriter from Davenport, Iowa, known for his collaborations with United States Senator John McCain on several nonfiction books as well as on political speeches.
When McCain signed a sarcastic 2006 letter to then-Senator Barack Obama, describing himself as “embarrassed” that he’d “failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble” – that was a Saltergram, drafted by McCain’s speechwriter and closest aide, Mark Salter. When the Huffington Post published a caustic response to booing and criticism of McCain by anti-war students under the heading “Top McCain Aide Insults Entire Graduating Class,” that was a Saltergram.
And now, if Time magazine’s Mark Halperin is right, Washington has been hit by the biggest Saltergram ever, in the form of an anonymous, 353-page campaign novel titled, “ O: A Presidential Novel.”
Some of “O”’s liveliest passages project the same bitterness that Salter and others in McCain’s circle still feel about the Arizona senator’s 2008 defeat and the subsequent collapse of his reputation, and some of the same villains they blame.
http://www.politico.com/story/2011/01/the-story-of-mark-salter-048337#ixzz3nKOrLWIa
“I think one of the keys to understanding Mark is to think of him as someone who probably should’ve been born 300 years ago,” said Republican consultant Todd Harris, who worked with Salter on McCain’s 2000 campaign. “He would have made a very good honor-bound knight, willing to duel and fight to the death if his reputation has been besmirched. Mark takes the idea of honor very seriously, far more than most people these days.”
Salter, 55, suggested in a brief email that POLITICO not write about him because he’s “basically boring.” He lives with his wife and children in Alexandria, writes speeches for a living — including some of McCain’s, like his recent op-ed on the Tucson shootings, and has told friends he’d like to write a book on his beloved Georgetown Hoyas. Burly and goateed, sociable but a bit remote on the McCain campaign trail, he is a consummate Washington insider who has always projected an outsider’s disgust with the town. He shares season tickets to Georgetown basketball games with top Biden aide Mike Donilon, his college roommate, but treasures his summers with his family on the Maine coast. He rose to the pinnacle of politics as McCain’s friend and adviser, and was lionized by a press that idealized his disgust with them. Never a particularly cheerful character, Salter has been down since the 2008 campaign, friends said, and thinking about a career change.
Mark Salter with McCain
If you are correct re McConnell and who’s in line to take his seat, you just fot my attention. I’d rather keep McConnell, if those two are the only real possibilities.
Mark—we are not buying what you are selling—anymore, anytime, period.
This article speaks more about the quality of the remaining Senators than about Sen. Cruz.
Simply stated, “YES!” To quote Wikipedia (which I rarely do), “Aside from having worked on Senator McCain’s staff for 19 years (as of 2008), Salter has also written, in collaboration with McCain, the books “13 Soldiers”, “Why Courage Matters”, “Faith of My Fathers”, “Worth the Fighting For”, “Character is Destiny”, and “Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them”. Some point to Salter as the author of the anonymously written book “O: A Presidential Novel.”
Sadly, the Senate is even more of a mess than the House— and we can’t get a true conservative to run for Speaker!
Now I’ve been “out of the game” for several years now, so it’s possible that there are power brokers I don’t know of who could push for Majority Leader. But McCain, Cornyn, Alexander, Graham, and Thune have had a decade—or decadeS— to consolidate their power.
I can think of one Senator who is hated by all and his name is John McCain. Enough said.
Thanks for counting. That’s great news!
“In this instance, the consensus is that Ted Cruz is a jackass. The bipartisan action taken was to deny him a vote on the Senate floor, and the additional speaking time he desired for another unctuous tribute to himself, courtesies that are routinely granted all senators.”
Gloat all you want Johnny. Every slap you aim at Cruz lands directly on the voters you rely on to get re-elected. He is doing what we want him to do, so when you insult him, you insult us.
Thanks guys just confirming. :)
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