First, they'd offer a 'clean' bill increasing the debt ceiling, rather than trying to play hardball with Obama and the Democrats by advancing conservative policy priorities. So, according to Cruz, GOP Senate leaders announced that they planned to do two things. The issue at hand was the debt ceiling, which needed to be raised.

In the introduction to his book, Cruz narrates the events of a private Senate Republican strategy lunch on Februa day when, in Cruz's telling, his colleagues heaped 'rage,' 'venom,' and 'animosity' on him because he had committed 'the cardinal sin in Washington, D.C.: telling the truth.' Ted Cruz begins his book with a very misleading story in which he argues that most of his Republican Senate colleagues are mendacious sellouts Darren McCollester/Getty Actually, all you really have to do is read his book's introduction - a melodramatic narrative starring Cruz's Republican colleagues, who are portrayed as corrupt hacks trying to hoodwink their own voters, in contrast to the noble and principled Ted Cruz. To understand this dynamic, all you have to do is read his autobiography. And his fellow Republicans don't like this one bit. For the past three years, he has been engaged in a very specific, pointed, and personal attempt aimed at painting practically every Republican in Washington as a corrupt phony and himself as the only honest man in the city. But all three were members of good standing in their respective parties - they didn't pick gratuitous fights with their major partisan allies, and they certainly didn't portray their parties' leading electoral officials as corrupt sellouts trying to hoodwink their own voters.Ĭruz has done just the opposite.

Bush did it before him, and Bill Clinton did it before him. It's common for presidential candidates to trash Washington on the campaign trail: Barack Obama did it, and George W. And not only is he not a team player, but he instead constantly positions himself as working against the Republican team in general and his Senate colleagues in particular.Ĭruz portrays his fellow Republicans as corrupt hacks trying to hoodwink their own voters, in contrast to the noble and principled Ted Cruzīeing a team player is very important in politics. They make clear that part of this dynamic is a personal one: A lot of people who work closely with Cruz are just truly repelled by him.īut the issue is broader than that - at heart, Ted Cruz is so loathed by Republicans because he's not a team player. So what has Cruz done to earn this hatred? Several great articles have collected anecdotes shedding light on this - for instance, from the Atlantic's Molly Ball and Mother Jones's Tim Murphy and David Corn. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.' He added: 'I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. Indeed, while speaking at Stanford on Wednesday, former Speaker of the House John Boehner referred to Cruz as 'Lucifer in the flesh,' according to the Stanford Daily. As Ted Cruz has risen to become Donald Trump's main rival in the Republican primary, it's become clear just how deeply much of the party's Washington establishment loathes him - to the point where many have still refused to endorse Cruz, and some say they'd even prefer Trump to Cruz as a nominee.

John boehner ted cruz