Cruz: I’m Not Trying to Play the Washington Rules, I´m Trying to Change the Rules

◼ Tuesday on Fox News Channel´s "Special Report with Bret Baier," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said when he forced a weekend vote on President Barack Obama´s executive action on immigration he was "not trying to play the Washington rules," but instead he is "trying to change the rules." Cruz said, “What the president did is unconstitutional. We’re facing a constitutional crisis and in my view it was critical. - Breitbart

◼ Did Ted Cruz really bungle the lame-duck session for Republicans? - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork

Specifically, the accusation is that Cruz's initiative created a break in the consideration of the spending bill that allowed Reid to take the opportunity to set in motion the procedures necessary to get the confirmations underway. By doing that on Saturday, instead of having to wait until after the spending bill was passed on, say, Monday, the thinking goes, Reid got to pass more nominations than he might otherwise have. And of course, given that Democrats are about to give up control of the Senate, this was Reid's last chance to confirm Obama's nominees on his own.

There are three problems with the anti-Cruz scenario. The first is that on December 9, days before Cruz threw a wrench in the works, Reid signaled his intention to confirm all of Obama's remaining nominees, no matter how long it took....

It is simply impossible to believe that the man who made the Senate pass Obamacare on Christmas Eve would abandon the president's nominees out of the goodness of his heart so that Republican colleagues could go home to make scheduled dates at the ballet or visits with family. That is not Harry Reid's style. If Cruz had not acted, would Reid have said, 'Well, it looks like we would have to work all the way until December 18 to finish these nominations, so let's just put them aside and go home and have a nice time, even though it's our party's last chance to pass them." Does anyone believe Reid would have done that? KEEP READING