Cry Baby Dana Milbank: 'Ted Cruz Bullied Republicans for Years'

Is Dana Milbank — one of the Washington Compost’s many leftist columnists — really a girly man, or do you think he’s just pretending?

Finally, Senate Republicans are standing up to the bully who terrorized them the past two and a half years — and they’re finding out he isn’t so tough, after all. After Cruz on the Senate floor Friday called his fellow Republican, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), a liar, his GOP colleagues have moved swiftly to shut down his antics. They voted in large numbers to renew the Export-Import Bank (McConnell’s scheduling of the vote, opposed by Cruz, is what prompted Cruz to accuse McConnell of lying) and they thwarted Cruz and his sidekick, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), on poison-pill amendments to the highway bill that would have jettisoned Senate rules in order to defund Planned Parenthood, scuttle the Iran nuclear deal and repeal Obamacare.

A bully who “terrorized” Republicans? How did he do that, exactly? By threatening to wipe entire nations off the earth, like Iran has done — a country John Boehner et al. are more than willing to negotiate with? Or did he perhaps create a little army of radicals who are ready and willing to behead anyone who disagrees with the dear senator from Texas?

Why no. Of course not. All Cruz did was stand up for conservative principles. That’s it. He was elected by the people of Texas; they wanted him to actually behalve like a principled conservative… and that’s exactly what he has done.

Apparently, that’s enough nowadays to accuse someone of “terrorizing” and of being a “bully.” In the real world, where real men live, the entire notion is laughable, but Dana Milbank lives in the Washington bubble so he actually thinks that nagging and whining like a disgruntled little girl makes people sympathize with him and the only Republicans he likes: sellouts.

If we’re going to accuse anyone in the Senate of terrorizing anybody else, why, let’s have a look at the way the GOP’s leadership has behaved. They constantly go after principled conservatives, kick them off this or that commission, and actively try to defeat them in primaries. In politics, that’s as close to “terrorizing” someone as you can possibly get. All Cruz did was tell the country that McConnell lied to him (which is undoubtedly true). Who’s the real bully here, Dana?

Of course,  Milbank knows that too. He doesn’t actually sympathize with Mitch McConnell, John McCain and the other many conservatives-in-name-only in the Senate, he’s just trying to manipulate the public. Like other progressives (in both parties) he fears Cruz like a mad dog fears a veterinarian: the vet will be calm and friendly, but he’ll do what has to be done to fix the situation — and he’ll be thanked by every person living in the neighborhood. The same goes for Cruz: if he’s elected president, he’ll cut spending and rid America of the Washington Cartel. Great for the American people, but slightly less great for Milbank and his ilk; after all, they’re part of the cartel in one way or another.

And so Milbank tries to scare voters. Ted Cruz is evil. He’s a bully. He terrorizes people! He calls liars liars! He isn’t cuddly at all! How can you vote for someone like that? You can’t! Right?!

It’s sad, despicable, but in some way also quite entertaining. I can’t wait to see how Milbank and his cowardly friends respond when Cruz rises in the polls once the debates get started and Americans discover for themselves that Cruz is actually a very polite, kind guy, who simply has the courage to speak the truth about what’s going on in Washington.