First Democrats, now a former Senate GOP leader is attacking Sen. Ted Cruz for standing his ground instead of compromising on key issues.
Trent Lott, a former Senate majority leader from Mississippi and now a lobbyist, dubbed Cruz one of the “problems” in the Senate and urged incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to quickly “co-opt” new Republican senators before Cruz and others in the “Far Right” deputize them.
“There are problems,” said Lott, pushing bipartisanship at a media roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “Yes, we’ve got the Ted Cruzes in the Republican Party, and we’ve got Elizabeth Warrens in the Democratic Party,” he said answering a question about which party is gumming up the Senate more.
He urged McConnell to lower the boom on the outspoken Republicans who won’t follow the GOP leadership. Top Republicans, said Lott, have to “deal with some of these members.”
He blasted the government shutdown that Cruz had a role in orchestrating. “That shutdown was one of the dumbest things I ever saw, it was a total fraud,” said Lott, who added that “I just don’t think you can tolerate that.”
He also ruled Cruz out as a potential presidential candidate. “I hope it’s a governor or a former governor. Period. In other words, no senators,” he barked.
Lott said McConnell should go to work fast on the new Republican senators. “I think the leadership should move quickly to co-opt them, bring them into the loop, pull them close to leadership, don’t let ’em drift over to the far right,” he said.
That comment won support from his colleague Tom Daschle, himself a former Senate Democratic leader. Daschle, in a reference to McConnell’s team, said, “There are a lot more people in his caucus who come with the belief that standing your ground is the right thing to do, who don’t want to compromise.”
Lawmakers like Cruz don’t think that standing for their ideas is wrong.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
