According to the Daily Caller, Speaker Boehner broke Reagan’s 11th Commandment big time at a GOP fundraiser in Colorado Wednesday evening:
At a Steamboat Springs event for GOP Rep. Scott Tipton, the Ohio Republican quipped that he likes how Cruz’s presidential campaign keeps “that jackass” out of Washington, and from telling Boehner how to do his job.
That remark rubbed some attendees the wrong way.
“I don’t think it’s terribly speaker-like, and I think it kind of goes against everything that Reagan ever said about disparaging Republicans,” said Ed MacArthur, the president of Native Excavating, who attended the fundraiser.
Given Speaker Boehner’s abysmal approval ratings, the question isn’t if his comment hurts Senator Cruz, but if it will possibly help him.
Cruz has clashed with party leadership since taking office in January of 2013. He has “intentionally stuck his finger in the eye of the Republican leadership in the House,” as the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza put it, on a number of occasions:
The key point to remember in all of this is that Ted Cruz wants to be hated by congressional Republicans, or, at the very least, he doesn’t mind knowing that they hate him. Cruz has his eye not on climbing the leadership ladder in Congress but on running for president.
That’s a good plan, given the electorate’s current disgust with the status quo.
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