Senator Paul on the Attack

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the overwhelming front-runner to be her party's standard-bearer in the 2016 Presidential Election, and the Republicans know it.  Even though she has not announced her intentions, Republicans are already taking political shots at her.  But their personal attacks are shrill and feeble, and reveal a party without a vision for the country.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead among likely Democratic presidential candidates.  The former First Lady has been in the national spotlight for more than two decades.  In that time she has been a formidable political presence on the national stage, and has displayed tremendous energy and resilience.  Secretary Clinton enjoys great affection and respect from her loyalists, and endures immense disdain from her detractors.   While she is a polarizing figure, her overall personal favorability ratings are very high.  And her great political skills will make her a strong presidential candidate, should she decide to run.

Republicans fear a Clinton candidacy, in part because they do not have a clear front-runner for their party's nomination.  And nearly half the Americans polled in a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.  Nonetheless, potential GOP candidates are already jockeying for position in the nomination race.

None has been more outspoken than Tea Party favorite Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).  And Senator Rand Paul has focused his most recent attacks on Secretary Clinton.  Paul pushed back on the charges that Republicans are engaged in a "war on women." "The Democrats can't say, 'We're the great defenders of women's rights in the workplace'...when the leader of their party, the leading fundraiser in the country, is Bill Clinton, who was a perpetrator of that kind of sexual harassment," Paul told C-Span, referring to the Monica Lewinsky affair.  He continued, "Someone who takes advantage of a young girl in their office?  I mean, really.  And then have the gall to stand up and say, 'Republicans are having a war on women?'"  He concluded, "Now, that's not Hillary's fault...but it is a factor in judging Bill Clinton is history."

Senator Paul's comments got a lot of attention, no doubt as he had hoped.  It was clearly an effort to dredge up old headlines about the Clinton-era dramas in the White House.   His attack received support from GOP party boss Reince Priebus, who told MSNBC that "everything is on the table."  Priebus explained, "I think we're going to have a truckload of opposition research on Hillary Clinton, and some things may be old, and some things may be new.  But I think everything is at stake when you're talking about the leader of the free world."

Priebus is the man who commissioned an autopsy of the Republican failure to win the White House in 2012.  In announcing the results last year, he said, "The way we communicate our principles isn't resonating widely enough...focus groups described our party as 'narrow-minded,' 'out of touch,' and 'stuffy old men.'"  Well, Mr. Priebus?

But not all Republicans think that Senator Paul's approach is the way to win the White House.  Republican strategist Karl Rove told Fox News, "This can't be 'I want to run for president'-It's got to be about something bigger than that, and frankly Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda for the country."  He added, "I'm not certain again that beating up on Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky is a particularly good thing to strengthen your skills for the 2016 contest."

Former Republican congressman and current MSNBC television host Joe Scarborough told his audience he'd “never bring that stuff up in a gazillion years.”  But he did pivot, saying that if Secretary Clinton attacks Republicans as anti-women it's fair game.  “Does this not compromise Hillary Clinton’s ability to bash Republicans as being terrible towards women," he said.

Perhaps that is the ultimate Republican strategy.  But it risks energizing Clinton supporters, alienating independent and women voters, and reinforcing the negative perceptions of the party as "out of touch." 

What Hath Cruz Wrought?

With very little time remaining until the U.S. government technically goes into default on its debt, Senate Republicans and Democrats struggle to reach a short-term solution that would end the partial government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. Of course, both parties say they are fighting for the American people, yet the American people are the biggest losers no matter the outcome of this latest skirmish. 

How ridiculous was it that Texas Senator Ted Cruz decided to lead an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, in exchange for keeping the government open and raising the debt ceiling. Senator Cruz knew full well that the Senate would not take the matter up, and the president would not go along with overturning his signature achievement. Even leading Republicans in both houses acknowledge it was the wrong strategy.

Now, in the height of hypocrisy, Senator Cruz joined his close friend, Utah Senator Mike Lee, and several Republicans Sunday to protest the government closing of the World War II Memorial in Washington. A small crowd gathered at the barriers chanted, "Tear down these walls." Senator Cruz said that the Obama administration was using veterans as pawns. What phony outrage! Cruz and Lee are the architects of the shutdown.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 53 percent of the public blames Republicans, while 31 percent blame President Barack Obama. The poll shows that Republicans are getting more blame this year than they did when the government last shutdown in 1995-96. And the poll shows Cruz with a 14 percent favorable, 28 percent unfavorable rating. Surprisingly, the poll shows that while the government debate has gone on, Obamacare has gotten more popular, although it is still under water overall.

Utah's Senator Mike Lee has been a loyal and ardent supporter of his close friend Ted Cruz. He has received warm praise from his colleague for being a great leader and public servant. Lee even helped fill in during Cruz's fake filibuster on the Senate floor last month. But even Lee should be privately asking himself, what hath Cruz wrought? 

Senator Lee's favorable/unfavorable rating has taken a big hit according to a Brigham University poll released last week. A majority of the respondents now view Lee unfavorably, a twenty point swing since June. And a poll from Utah's Deseret News revealed that most of the state's voters don't believe that interrupting government functions to stop Obamacare is a good idea. 

A recent report estimates that the shutdown is hurting Utah 14th worst when compared to the other states and the District of Columbia. In fact, the report, by WalletHub, found, "States won by the Republican Party in the 2012 presidential election could be hit disproportionately hard by a prolonged government shutdown, as 15 such Red States ranked in the top 25 in the study's overall 'at-risk' rankings." 

So it is no wonder Lee is losing support. Kirk Jowers, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, told Time Magazine, "Utahans expect effectiveness and efficiency and results out of their government, not ideological tantrums." But Washington has devolved into nothing but ideological tantrums and trust in government is at an all-time low. 

From its very inception the Tea Party's goal has been to blow the federal government up. Close the place down. Default on the debt. Whatever it takes to get federal deficits under control, including "starving the beast." Tea Party Congressmen are all from gerrymandered districts that are 100% safe. They do not have to worry about what is best for America, and most Americans. Meanwhile, the House leadership fears the Tea Party.

Only in Washington would the very people who caused the government shutdown, and possibly a catastrophic government default, demonstrate against the shutdown. Confused? Well there is no better practitioner of perception deception than Senator Ted Cruz. 

One citizen at the WWII Memorial perhaps spoke for most Americans, "This is ridiculous. This is not just and fair. It's just not fair."