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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) got some payback Sunday for his antics on the Senate floor last week, in which he went where no senator ever goes: he called his majority leader a liar. That tantrum earned him a
nearly unanimous rebuke Sunday.
Republican leaders, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), delivered what senators described as punishment for Cruz’s brazen floor tactics—the Texas senator first accused McConnell of lying and later sought to change Senate procedures in order to push for an Iran-related amendment.
So when Cruz came to the floor looking for 16 senators to agree to hold a roll-call vote, only three raised their hands. McConnell, sitting at his desk, turned around and peered at Cruz, who looked stunned at what had just happened. The Senate dispensed with his effort by a voice vote and quickly moved on, doing the same to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a Cruz ally who sought to use arcane procedures to force a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood.
It all went down in an instant, but the message was clear: If Cruz doesn't want to play nice with his Republican colleagues, they will respond in kind.
The Senate was meeting Sunday to vote on two amendments to the highway bill, which has to pass within the next four days before transportation funding expires. Cruz's temper tantrum was over one of those amendments, to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. Cruz says McConnell promised him he wouldn't make a deal to bring the reauthorization up and reneged, the rest of the Senate says they weren't aware of any such promise and were quick to trash Cruz and his grandstanding to Politico after the floor smackdown.
No matter how stunned Cruz may have been on the floor, he recovered enough to do some more grandstanding and trash-talking to reporters
off the floor. In a thirteen-minute session, Cruz trashed McConnell as the "so-called Republican leader" who was just half of a "McConnell-Reid leadership team." He says that the two leaders "operate as a team, expanding Washington and undermining the liberty of the people." That will surely win him more friends.
The Ex-Im amendment passed, 67-26. The Obamacare repeal amendment McConnell offered up as a way to appease some of the hardliners of his caucus who were also unhappy with the Ex-Im vote, failed 49-43. Cruz is likely to remain an irritant to McConnell this week, but he's got a bigger problem with this bill. The House doesn't want to deal with it. They've passed a five-month highway funding bill, and want to leave town as early as Wednesday for August recess. They don't want to have to stick around while the Senate works through all its drama. A bigger problem, however, is that there likely not enough votes to pass the Senate version, even if McConnell can get his stuff together in time to get the bill to the House. Meanwhile, the hundreds of highway projects happening all over the country right now could shut down in just five days.
