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NY Times Tears Into Trump, Cruz, Rest of Field as Racist, Extremist, 'Monster in the Mirror'
NewsBusters.org ^ | March 5, 2016 | Clay Waters

Posted on 03/05/2016 5:50:00 PM PST by Kaslin

The New York Times on Friday and Saturday let its readers know that the Republicans were getting what they deserved for pandering to right-wing extremism and xenophobia, while Hillary Clinton had successfully gained the sensible center. Friday’s lead editorial, “The G.O.P.’s Monster in the Mirror,” began with a little implied Trumpian vulgarity, then smeared the two Republican senators in the presidential race as extremist. Paul Krugman doubled down, calling the field racist, while Ted Cruz was heckled and Hillary Clinton hailed on Saturday's front page.

Holy Mitt, what a meltdown.

Add this one to Donald Trump’s lengthening list of firsts: He’s forced a Republican Party reckoning overdue for years, all in a few days. It took the Trump-dominated Super Tuesday contests to awaken Republican leaders to the fact that the darkest elements of the party’s base, which many of them have embraced or exploited, are now threatening their party.

Last week, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, elected to the Senate partly on their appeal to extremists, seemed to realize that they weren’t attractive enough to win Mr. Trump’s crowd.

That same day, columnist Paul Krugman’s "Clash of Republican Con Artists” also carried the idea that all the Republicans are as scary and racist as Trump. The text box: “Trump Isn’t the Only Fraud Running.”

So Republicans are going to nominate a candidate who talks complete nonsense on domestic policy; who believes that foreign policy can be conducted via bullying and belligerence; who cynically exploits racial and ethnic hatred for political gain.

But that was always going to happen, however the primary season turned out. The only news is that the candidate in question is probably going to be Donald Trump. Establishment Republicans denounce Mr. Trump as a fraud, which he is. But is he more fraudulent than the establishment trying to stop him? Not really.

Actually, when you look at the people making those denunciations, you have to wonder: Can they really be that lacking in self-awareness?

Mr. Ryan also declares that the “party of Lincoln” must “reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.” Has he ever heard of Nixon’s “Southern strategy”; of Ronald Reagan’s invocations of welfare queens and “strapping young bucks” using food stamps; of Willie Horton?

Put it this way: There’s a reason whites in the Deep South vote something like 90 percent Republican, and it’s not their philosophical attachment to libertarian principles.

....

....the Trump phenomenon threatens the con the G.O.P. establishment has been playing on its own base. I’m talking about the bait and switch in which white voters are induced to hate big government by dog whistles about Those People, but actual policies are all about rewarding the donor class.

What Donald Trump has done is tell the base that it doesn’t have to accept the whole package. He promises to make America white again -- surely everyone knows that’s the real slogan, right? -- while simultaneously promising to protect Social Security and Medicare, and hinting at (though not actually proposing) higher taxes on the rich. Outraged establishment Republicans splutter that he’s not a real conservative, but neither, it turns out, are many of their own voters.

Just to be clear, I find the prospect of a Trump administration terrifying, and so should you. But you should also be terrified by the prospect of a President Rubio, sitting in the White House with his circle of warmongers, or a President Cruz, whom one suspects would love to bring back the Spanish Inquisition.

Another entry in the media’s “even Republicans hate Ted Cruz” file, Jonathan Mahler filed from Austin for Saturday’s front page, “Cruz Adopted Activist Vision As State Lawyer.

From its start in 1999, the office of the solicitor general of Texas was run by a plain-spoken Mormon, a by-the-books lawyer known for mentoring young attorneys and defending the state, whatever the political consequences.

The young lawyers loved him. The state’s legal community hailed him as a man of dignity and integrity. And the office seldom showed up in the headlines.

But everything changed in January 2003, when Ted Cruz took over.

(Cue shudder-inducing music)

Within months of his appointment to the job, Mr. Cruz, then 31, set about transforming this under-the-radar, apolitical office into an aggressively ideological, attention-grabbing one. From a nondescript government building in the shadow of the Capitol, he inserted himself into scores of politically charged cases around the country, bombarding the United States Supreme Court with amicus briefs on hot-button issues like abortion and gun control.

His focus on gaining attention clashed with the sensibilities of many of the lawyers who worked for him and were accustomed to a more scrupulous and less publicity-minded approach. Before the end of his first year, half of the eight attorneys working in the office had left, raising concern inside the attorney general’s office about whether Mr. Cruz was the right choice for the job.

....

The focus on Supreme Court cases that did not directly involve Texas dismayed some of the lawyers on the staff, who felt the office was losing its legal and ethical rigor in favor of politics and seeking headlines.

One incident that a couple of Mr. Cruz’s lawyers found especially troubling arose during Medellín v. Texas, which he has described as the biggest case of his tenure. In a sense, it was a relatively minor issue -- one including a cartoon character -- but it was memorable to those who worked in the office.

The case involved two teenage girls in Houston who were raped and murdered. One of the victims was wearing a watch featuring Goofy, the Disney character. According to two lawyers who worked in the office at the time, Mr. Cruz wanted to describe it as a Mickey Mouse watch in his brief to the Supreme Court because he thought it would make for a more powerful image for the justices. The two lawyers requested anonymity because they remain active in the Texas legal community, where Mr. Cruz has great influence.

“People were really shocked,” said one of the lawyers. “He wanted to misrepresent the record -- to lie -- for rhetorical or dramatic effect.”

The office’s first brief before the Supreme Court, filed in 2005, describes the grisly scene of José Medellín and his fellow gang members dividing up the money and jewelry taken from the two dead girls: “Medellín’s brother kept one of the girls’ Mickey Mouse watch.”

When the case returned to the court two years later, Mr. Cruz apparently had a change of heart. The reference in his brief was now to a “Disney-brand Goofy watch.”

Mr. Cruz said through his spokeswoman that he had no recollection of the episode.

If the worse thing Cruz’s enemies can come up with is being overzealous in prosecuting the killers of two teenage girls...

Not even the Arts pages escaped anti-conservative politics, as Louis Bayard on Friday described Mr. Carson, the butler on Downton Abbey, as “further to the right than Ted Cruz.”

Hillary Clinton, by contrast, was blessed with a story on Saturday’s front page by Amy Chozick, “Clinton Offers Economic Plan Focused on Jobs,” which perfectly positioned Hillary as the happy medium between the angry populists on her right (Trump) and left (Sanders).

In an election year defined by angry populism, Hillary Clinton made an optimistic economic pitch on Friday, presenting a wide-ranging plan for job growth that would provide incentives for corporations that invest in employees and strip tax benefits from companies that move jobs overseas....But unlike Mr. Sanders, her Democratic rival, or Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton did not espouse a red-hot indictment of the private sector or offer a dire assessment of the state’s future. She provided a stark contrast with their messaging, which came on a day in which the government said job growth accelerated in February while wages had stagnated.”



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Arkansas; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: 2016election; 2016presidental; amychoizick; amychozick; arkansas; berniesanders; demagogicparty; donaldtrump; election2016; hillary; hillaryclinton; hitlery; jonathanmahler; louisbayard; memebuilding; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; paulkrugman; racism; tedcruz; texas; trump; vermont; wipewater
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1 posted on 03/05/2016 5:50:00 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

New York Times = Paid Democrat Liars


2 posted on 03/05/2016 5:52:46 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Kaslin
It's the only play they have left. They're pulling out all the stops...racist, Nazi, Fascist, etc, etc, etc.

And it's only going to get worse.

3 posted on 03/05/2016 5:53:38 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Neil Armstrong. An original...an American...a hero. An Original American Hero.)
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To: Kaslin

I think its time to change the bottom of my bird cage


4 posted on 03/05/2016 5:53:45 PM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: Kaslin
Monster in the mirror?

Mary Butterworth...
Mary Butterworth...
Mary Butterworth...
Mary Butterworth...
Mary Butterworth...
Mary Butterworth...
Mary Butterworth...

5 posted on 03/05/2016 5:55:25 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: ronnie raygun
I'll respond to the new york times with this:

Hillary Clinton DEFENDED rapist Thomas Taylor at his trial.
posts #15, #27, #64, #65
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3405201/posts?q=1&;page=65#65

6 posted on 03/05/2016 5:55:57 PM PST by Mr Apple ( For Sale: SPECIAL PLEA deals provided by defense attorney HILLARY FIBBLIN' CLINTON!)
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To: Kaslin

Well, we certainly don’t want anyone to think we’re racists, do we? We should just let the NYT write the Republican Party platform. /s


7 posted on 03/05/2016 5:56:00 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Kaslin

Cruz’s pal Glenn Beck has been calling everyone who disagrees with him a “racist” or “Nazi” for a long time. He’s always accusing Trump supporters of being “brownshirts.” So, it’s no surprise that the dems mouthpiece (NYT) does the exact same thing.


8 posted on 03/05/2016 5:57:23 PM PST by euram
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To: Kaslin

Willie Horton was brought up by Mario “Il Supremo” Cumo when he ran in the ‘rat party primary against Dukakis who had paroled the murderous, racist fiend.
The Times is 0bama’s National Socialist Democratic Party. Hildebeast is 0bama’s Ilse Koch..


9 posted on 03/05/2016 5:59:11 PM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: smokingfrog

Not only that we don’t want to be called ‘obstructionist’ or ‘the party of NO.’


10 posted on 03/05/2016 6:00:46 PM PST by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
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To: Kaslin

The NY Times is not too far off the mark here. The GOP is full of corruption and con artists.


11 posted on 03/05/2016 6:02:09 PM PST by Menthops (If you are reading this..... the GOPe hates you!)
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To: ichabod1

With Trump it is becoming the party of yes again, the problem it is yes to things the Dems could not countenance in a thousand years.


12 posted on 03/05/2016 6:02:13 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Kaslin
Toilet overflow from the Old Grey Whore.
13 posted on 03/05/2016 6:06:57 PM PST by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a house , the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutierrez)
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To: Kaslin

H->! is a long time, big buck crook.


14 posted on 03/05/2016 6:14:36 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: blueunicorn6

please see 6th keyword re New York Times


15 posted on 03/05/2016 6:21:27 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed theThe l ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: euram

Typical leftist tactic - smear by association.

Because Beck has endorsed Cruz does not make Cruz is ‘pal’.

If you are trying to convince me to vote for Trump - your tactics are intellectually vapid and a FAIL.


16 posted on 03/05/2016 6:21:32 PM PST by TheTimeOfMan (Three Percenter - Cruz/West)
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To: Kaslin

Does anybody give a big rip what the NYT has to say? (Rhetorical)


17 posted on 03/05/2016 6:23:44 PM PST by Graybeard58
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

18 posted on 03/05/2016 6:24:27 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: Graybeard58

Not really, however the rest of the media is just like them.


19 posted on 03/05/2016 6:26:54 PM PST by CMailBag
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To: blueunicorn6

Isn’t the Times owned by a Mexican?


20 posted on 03/05/2016 6:27:57 PM PST by blue-duncan
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