The Attack of the Republican Cannibals:

If I were the leader of the Democrat Party at this time, my strategy would be to just sit back and let the Republicans cannibalize themselves.  This strategy would save the party millions of dollars and the result would probably be the same.  It seems that the only thing Republicans can agree on these days is to disagree. 

Ted Cruz won election to the U.S. Senate by promising to repeal Obamacare and standing for smaller government.  Unfortunately, he finds himself in the minority in the Senate and even though the House of Representatives has voted 40 times since 2011 to repeal Obamacare  (1) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not allowed it to come up for a full vote in the Senate.  Ted Cruz has never had the opportunity to make good on his promise to repeal Obamacare because it has never come up for him to vote on it. 

When the House voted to defund Obamacare as part of the continuing resolution, Ted Cruz saw it as an opportunity to finally vote for repeal, or in this instance defunding.  However, he is only one vote out of 100 in the Senate so he understood that he had to do something drastic to get everyone’s attention.  As any good leader, he was not about to let this opportunity go away and started a 21 hour filibuster speech on Tuesday September 24, 2013.  (2)  The purpose of his speech was to call for a no vote on cloture for the continuing resolution. 

The cloture rule was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson.  He was frustrated at the inaction of the Senate due to a minority of senators being able to hold up voting on legislation by filibustering and preventing a vote.  The cloture rule halts debate when a two-thirds vote of senators vote to stop debate.  (3)  The rule has changed as the number of senators grew because of the addition of new states to where cloture now requires 60 votes out of the 100 senators. 

The reason Senator Cruz wanted a no vote on cloture in this instance was to prevent the addition of an amendment to the House appropriation bill that would strip the language defunding Obamacare and not allow any other amendments.  (4)  Unfortunately, the Senate reached cloture by a 79 to 19 vote on Friday September 27, 2013.   (5)  The Senate added the Reid amendment by a 54 to 44 vote (6) and the Senate passed a continuing resolution to fund the government including Obamacare (7) by a 54 to 44 vote.  All Republicans, except for two that did not vote, voted against the amendment and resolution.  54 Senators, all Democrats, voted for it.  In other words, there were 25 Republicans that voted for cloture, knowing they were approving the Reid amendment and resolution.  I guess these Senators wanted to be able to say in the next election that they voted for the resolution to fund the government before they voted against it. 

Since Ted Cruz’s filibuster speech, he has been vilified and now that his attempts to halt funding for Obamacare have failed, it will most likely get worse.  The sad fact is that most of the vilification of Ted Cruz is coming from fellow Republicans and not Democrats.  Ted Cruz now finds himself under attack from Republican cannibals. 

The Republican cannibal leader happens to be my Senator, John McCain.  I have to confess, I have voted for him for Senator several times and even voted for him for President, but in my defense I am usually not voting for his opponent.  On Friday after the Cruz Filibuster, McCain excoriated Senator Cruz for making the Republican Party dysfunctional.  I guess he toned it down a bit from when he called Senator Rand Paul a “wacko bird” after his 13-hour filibuster over the use of drones.  (8) 

McCain is the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black.  If anyone makes the Republican Party dysfunctional or is a “wacko bird,” it is McCain.  McCain always campaigns as a conservative and in fact ran promising to end Obamacare if elected.  Now, just like Ted Cruz, when he finally has a chance in the Senate to do something substantive to end Obamacare, he moves over to the other side of the aisle and votes with the Democrats.  (5)  That is when it came to cloture, then he flip-flopped and voted with the Republicans when his vote was meaningless.  (6) (7)

The most cannibalistic thing McCain did this week was in his ripping of Cruz’s anti-Obamacare speech on the Senate floor.  In his speech McCain was responding to the following comment from Senator Cruz,   "If you go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany ….  Look, we saw in Britain, Neville Chamberlain, who told the British people, 'Accept the Nazis.  Yes, they'll dominate the continent of Europe but that's not our problem.  Let's appease them.  Why?  Because it can't be done.  We can't possibly stand against them.”  (9) 

McCain responded by saying, "I resoundingly reject that allegation …. That allegation, in my view, does a great disservice.  A great disservice to those brave Americans and those who stood up and said, 'what's happening in Europe cannot stand.”  (9)  McCain went on to remind Cruz that Obamacare was the “law of the land” and that the people showed their approval of the law by reelecting Obama.  (9)  The courts also upheld the law.  (10)  Therefore, in McCain’s opinion there is nothing left for us to do. 

Seriously, for the Supreme Court also upheld slavery, (11)  segregation, (12) and the internment of those of Japanese descent during World War II.  (13)  Are you saying Senator McCain that if you would have been in the Senate and had an opportunity to vote against slavery, segregation, or internment of U.S. citizens, you would have refused because they are the “law of the land” because the Supreme Court ruled in favor of these activities?

Just because something has become the law of the land does not mean it is good law and the law-making branch of our government, the legislature, can always repeal bad law or refuse to fund bad government programs.  This is precisely what the Congress is doing in this instance.  The people spoke and elected a majority to the House and ended the Democrat super majority in the Senate by electing people promising to do away with a bad law, Obamacare.  You Senator McCain are one of those people that were reelected to the Senate promising to end Obamacare.

However, when it comes to governing and fulfilling your promises, you side with those supporting this bad law.  If you were honest when you promised to do away with Obamacare, you would have stood with Senator Cruz this week instead of excoriating him on the floor of the Senate.  You seem to have forgotten the Republican 11^th commandment “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican."  (14)  Instead, you have become a Republican cannibal taking pleasure in eating one of your own that is only doing what the people of the State of Texas elected him to do. 

1. Terkel, Andrea. House GOP To Hold 40th Obamacare Repeal Vote. www.huffingtonpost.com. [Online] The Huffington Post, July 26, 2013. [Cited: July 30, 2013.] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/40th-obamacare-repeal-vote_n_3660999.html.

2. Cox, Ransey. Cruz launches floor protest against ObamaCare funding (Video). thehill.com. [Online] The Hill, September 24, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/324251-cruz-vows-to-speak-against-obamacare-until-hes-unable-to-stand.

3. United States Senate. Cloture Rule. www.senate.gov. [Online] March 8, 1917. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Cloture_Rule.htm.

4. Martin, Jenny Beth. SENATE REPUBLICANS CAN STOP REID FROM FUNDING OBAMACARE. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, September 23, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/23/Senate-fight-Reid.

5. United States Senate. Motion to Invoke Cloture on H.J. Res. 59. www.senate.gov. [Online] September 27, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00206.

6. —. Reid Amdt. No. 1974. www.senate.gov. [Online] September 27, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00208.

7. —. H.J.Res. 59 As Amended. www.senate.gov. [Online] September 27, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00209.

8. Flynn, Mike. MCCAIN DECRIES THE GOP CIVIL WAR HE STARTED. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, September 27, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/27/McCain-Decries-the-GOP-Civil-War-He-Started.

9. Lavender, Page. John McCain Rips Ted Cruz's Anti-Obamacare Speech, Criticizes Nazi Comparison (VIDEO). www.huffingtonpost.com. [Online] The Huffington Post, September 25, 2013. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/25/john-mccain-ted-cruz_n_3989887.html.

10. Kenny, Jack. Supreme Court Sidesteps Commerce Clause, Cites Tax Power, Says ObamaCare Is Constitutional. www.thenewamerican.com. [Online] New American, June 28, 2012. [Cited: July 30, 2013.] http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/11897-supreme-court-sidesteps-commerce-clause-cites-tax-power-says-obamacare-is-constitutional.

11. Encyclopedia Britanica. Dred Scott decision. www.britannica.com. [Online] [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171273/Dred-Scott-decision.

12. Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Separate but Equal: the Law of the Land. americanhistory.si.edu. [Online] [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/separate-but-equal.html.

13. Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education. The Supreme Court Internment Cases. korematsuinstitute.org. [Online] [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://korematsuinstitute.org/institute/aboutfred/internmentcases/.

14. Murse, Tom. 11th Commandment Definition: Informal Rule of Republican Party Politics. uspolitics.about.com. [Online] About.com. [Cited: September 27, 2013.] http://uspolitics.about.com/od/CampaignsElections/a/11th-Commandment-Definition.htm.