The Cruzapalooza had thrown most of Establishment D.C. and nearly all of the Manhattan-Beltway media elite into paroxysms of rage alternating with grief that would have been appropriate in the aftermath of the gassing of the Syrian children but which juxtaposed to Senator Cruz's all-nighter raised doubts not about Cruz but about all of his overwrought critics.

◼ Cruz is re-animating the Reagan Coalition, and though his opponents deny this, Cruz is doing so while keeping Reagan's famed 11th commandment by keeping his criticisms of elites general not specific. He does not speak ill of Senator John McCain, for example, despite the 2008 GOP nominees repeated attacks on Cruz, Paul and other "whacko birds...." - Hugh Hewitt/Townhall

Cruz smiles, takes out the rhetorical rapier, and reduces his interlocutors to sputtering incoherence mixed with hapless outrage. (Google Diane Feinstein and Cruz for a great example of dithering, entitled privilege colliding with forceful argument). He is also building an enormous war chest of data and future contributors while establishing in a way that no one can dispute that he did everything he could to stop the Obamacare nightmare before it engulfed the American health care system in chaos. Nicely done that. Well played Mr. Bond.

◼ Healing: White House Compares Republicans to Terrorists, Kidnappers, Arsonists - Guy Benson/Townhall

If you're surprised by this administration's poisonous rhetoric, you haven't been paying attention. And once again, the self-appointed civility policy are strangely off duty. Go figure.



◼ Cruz to Hannity: "We Need to Stand for Principle and Actually Stand Together"

◼ What Cruz Wrought - Stephen F. Hayes/Weekly Standard

...Everyone is talking about Obamacare. And the more it gets talked about, the clearer its flaws are to an already skeptical public.... Mike Lee told us in mid-July that GOP leaders had offered “nothing” in response to his entreaties and didn’t have a strategy of their own. “There is no plan,” he said.

The prospect of a unified Republican message was gone. So these conservatives launched their outside-in campaign, using grassroots activist groups and the growing conservative angst about the president’s health care law to force it atop the agenda.