Cruz’s comments draw fire from Dole, McCain
Washington (CNN) - Former Republican presidential nominees Bob Dole and John McCain are pushing back against Sen. Ted Cruz for comments he made Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
As Cruz was talking about how the Republican Party had not been successful in recent campaigns and what it needed to do to win, he said if “you want to lose elections, stand for nothing.”
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Then noting in 2010 how Republicans had won the House back with its emphasis on opposition to Obamcare, the Texas Republican added “Of course, all of us remember President Dole and President McCain and President Romney. Now look those are good men, they’re decent men. But when you don’t stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate.”
Dole, the 1996 nominee, told CNN Friday that “Senator Cruz needs to check the record before passing judgment.”
McCain, the 2008 nominee, told MSNBC Friday that he asked Cruz to apologize to Dole. “I talked to him on the floor. I talked to him on the floor, and I said exactly what I'm telling you I said.”
“(Cruz) can say what he wants about me, and he can say anything he wants to,” McCain continued. “But when he throws Bob Dole in there, I wonder if he thinks that Bob Dole stood for principle on that hilltop in Italy when he was so gravely wounded and left part of his body there fighting for country,” McCain also said.
Cruz’s spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, reacted to the calls for an apology.
“As he noted in his speech, the Senator greatly respects these men, particularly the heroic military service of Sens. Dole and McCain,” she said in a statement. “Suggesting anything otherwise is just an unnecessary distraction. He will not hesitate to talk about substantive matters of conservative principle that are important to bringing Republicans to victory – even if others may disagree.”
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Haha...Turd Cruz thinks he has a chance of being POTUS and that it's increased by being a RWNJ Teatroll loon. There's a reason Mittens' etch-a-sketched so hard, Cruz. If you can't figure it out, then by all mean, proceed.
Cruz thinks he will become the first tea bagger to get the republican nomination with a republican favorabilty of single digits. What a fool.
Bob Dole and McCain stand for freedom, responsibility and courage. All that is good and right about the GOP and America.
Ted Cruz stands for all that is dysfunctional and wrong with American politics today.
Can it get any clearer?
McCain today: "Maybe the President thinks the Cold War is over, but Vladimir Putin doesn't and that's what this is all about."
McCain during his 2000 campaign to a group of veterans: "The Cold War is over, the Soviet empire is gone and neither one is missed."
With the GOP/TEatrolls, it's all about saying whatever is convenient at the time.
Oops, that should read "McCain during his 2008 campaign"...
"Can it get any clearer?
Not if the MSM is involved.
“Suggesting anything otherwise is just an unnecessary distraction."
Yeah, well. Tell that to McCain and Dole. It is they he should be addressing, not the media.
It's bad enough that everyone thinks he is a traitor from Canada and a shutdown liar but when you have your own party hating on you maybe you should give it up and go back to your country of birth or your papito's Cuba.
I may not agree at all with McCain's or Dole's politics, but I believe they are decent, honorable men. Ted Cruz?–not so much.
I can understand Dole and McCrypt being piqued, when Cruz put them in the same group with Mitt the draft-dodger!
Put a picture of him and of Joe McCarthy side by side. Remarkable resemblance.
To throw both McCain and Dole under the bus is unbelievable, but when it's the Tea Party and Ted Cruz opening their mouths, it basically mean that cannibalism is alive and well in the GOP, and it's their own they are dining on.
Even as a Democrat, I do have respect for both Dole and McCain for their service to this country. Cruz just doesn't get it. He never will, and will be a never was in 2016.
Ted Cruz scares the bejesus out of me.he attacks everyone on both sides, with his almighty stance on principles, you would, think he never erred, or committed a sin in his life. he epitomizes everything that is wrong with our society today.
how dare he insult people(Dole & Mccain) who sacrificed almost everything for freedom and humanity. and i am speaking from a Democratic eye view.
Sorry but the way things are going for the GOP Cruz will sweep the primaries in the Spring of 2016 and he will have enough pledged delegates to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot.
This guy is just an idiot. It is time to deport this trash back to Canada
Cruz is from Canada.
I love it when a rotten political party implodes. Keep up the good work Fellas!
Absolutely correct. I even felt that Sarah Palin was a better choice for the top of that ticket. The neocons are running scared. "Methinks they doth protest too much."
The Trashman cometh.
Saddest thing about this, the more press he gets, the more he acts like the idiot he is. Best thing if he were ignored. Maybe he'd scab over and heal.
Cruz is not an American, he knows nothing about the hardships our military went through on the fighting fields. Yet he is critical of our military. Cruz must be deport back to Cuba, not Canada. He is not an American. He is a TERROIST like his father.
Cruz is everything that is wrong with the GOP, what an idiot!
What is the purpose of all the insults? You have no credibility and make false assumptions about those who have conservative views or lean Republican. Wake up America, our country cannot sustain the debt we are in and this country needs to get back to being a first rate country. It's sad what is happening to us.
Most people go to the polls (the few that do) and are surprisingly uninformed. Those that show up every 4 years think they are doing us a favor. Please, if you want change, vote in the primaries and listen to all point of view. Never vote along party lines only.
People like to get on Cruz? Why? I thinks the truth he speaks must go against so many who are deep in the Rino or Dimocrat camp. It is time for common sense to rule and a balanced budget and term limits would do this country a good turn..
Until these morons at C-CRAP (oh, did I spell that wrong?) get it through their thick heads that not all Americans are conservative, white, Christian and straight, and that some actually need affordable health care, they will never ever win a national election. Simply because they do not represent the majority of the American people.