Less than a day since Sen. Ted Cruz jumped head first into the 2016 GOP presidential race, conservatives are fighting over his electability, with Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer’s rip that “we already tried a first-term senator” taking fire from the right.
Even Krauthammer’s fans took to Twitter and Facebook to criticize him for being too quick to write the Texas senator off before his campaign even got going and the early primary and caucus states had a chance to hear his message.
Among them was Mark Levin, one of the nation’s top-ranked talk radio show hosts and star of the Mark Levin Show.
Levin, on Twitter, wrote: “Krauthammer, who voted for Carter and Mondale over Reagan, tells conservatives what’s wrong with Cruz.” Krauthammer wrote speeches for former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980, the year he and former President Jimmy Carter ran for re-election and were soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan.
“I’m a big fan. He’s a very bright and thoughtful guy,” assured Levin to Secrets about Krauthammer.
“But there’s an irony here. Somehow he missed the entire Reagan Revolution. So I’m not particularly overwhelmed by his repeated dissing of conservative outsiders like Cruz. He’s not alone in this regard,” he added.
He also posted Krauthammer’s comments on his Facebook page.
Krauthammer, who voted for Carter and Mondale over Reagan, tells conservatives what’s wrong with Cruz http://t.co/zxnVNdR5yH
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) March 24, 2015
Krauthammer on Monday took a shot at Cruz while on Fox News, claiming that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is a better choice because he has more of a record than the first-term senator.
“His appeal is that, ‘I’m a Constitutional conservative, I’m the guy with the liquid tongue, I can make the case,’ and he does,” Krauthammer said of Cruz.
Then, after saying Cruz will have to fight Mike Huckabee for the Christian conservative crowd, he added this:
“His real problem I think is this: Senators are going to have a hard time. First-term senators — we already tried a first term senator. And that’s why when Scott Walker says a proven track record, what Walker has, he doesn’t have the fluency on issues that a Cruz does, he’s made a lot of stumbles thus far. But Cruz talks about, ‘You have to walk the walk, rather than just talk the talk,’ you have to done something. But that’s not his record in the Senate, you know, he’s a good rhetorician.
“But when Walker says, ‘I ran the state, I took on the unions, I took on the liberals and I won,’ I think it’s going to be a strong argument.”
Many conservatives reacted angrily in online posts.
Levin didn’t hit his media brother but instead suggested that it is too early for pundits to begin writing off conservative candidates just as the race begins.
“It’s way too early for this kind of pre-emptive strike against the first guy in, the newcomer,” he told Secrets. “It isn’t insightful or helpful.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
