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Cruz Stands Up to Dingy Harry

by Rush Limbaugh - May 8,2013

RUSH: I’ve got audio sound bites I’ve been intending to get to for days, and now is the time. It’s about Ted Cruz. Now, I mentioned at the top of the program that Ted Cruz wants to attach an amendment to the immigration bill, the Gang of Eight immigration bill. It says (summarized), “Fine, they can’t become citizens. Whatever you do with them when you bring ’em out of the shadows, they’re not citizens. They’ve been here illegally. We’re not gonna reward them with citizenship, whatever else we do.

“They can’t become citizens, and that means they can’t vote.” That’s his way of trying to draw them out. We said on this program, “Hey, I’ll support amnesty — I’ll drop my ‘purity’ — if you promise these people can’t vote for 25 years.” And, of course, nobody would go for that. So Cruz says, “Okay, I want to make sure these people are not granted citizenship. They’ve been here illegally, they haven’t earned it, and whatever we do for ’em — pathway, whatever — they don’t get citizenship.”

He wants that amendment. So let’s go to the audio sound bites. Cruz is at the center of things. He was sent to Washington to shake things up and to gum up the works, and he’s doing it. This is Monday night on the Senate floor during consideration of a resolution to go to conference with the House to work out differences on the budget. Here’s what Senator Cruz had to say…

CRUZ: Reconciliation bills have been used to increase the debt ceiling at least three times — in 1986, in 1990, and in 1993 — and so for that reason, reserving the right to object, I would ask consent that the leader modify his request so that it not be an order for the Senate to consider a conference report that includes tax increases or reconciliation instructions to increase taxes or raise the debt limit.

RUSH: Well, this is a full frontal assault on Dingy Harry — and this just isn’t done! McConnell wouldn’t do this, McCain wouldn’t do this, but Ted Cruz says, “Okay, look. When we go to conference with the House, I want a requirement in there we’re not gonna raise any taxes. We’re gonna take what’s been passed, and we’re gonna go over there and we’re gonna conference what they’ve passed. But we’re not gonna start adding stuff to it after we’ve voted.”

This is his point: “We voted on our bill in the Senate. You can’t take it over there and start adding things to it like tax increases we haven’t voted on.” That makes perfect sense. In a democratic, republican way it makes perfect sense. “The Senate voted on a bill. Okay, we’re gonna take that to the bill the House, we’re gonna put ’em together, and combine ’em. But you can’t start adding things to the Senate bill that we didn’t vote on, including tax increases.”

Dingy Harry was not happy.

REID: (whispering) My friend from Texas is like the school yard bully. He pushes everybody around and is losing, and instead of playing the game according to the rules, he not only takes the ball home with him, but changes the rules. That way, no one wins, except the bully tries to indicate to people he has one. So I object to what my friend suggests. It’s actually fairly ridiculous, if you want the truth. Before we go to conference, determine what we’re going to do or not do in the conference, that’s not how we do things around here.

RUSH: That’s exactly why it’s gonna be done this way in the future. We’ve got a bill. The Senate has voted. The House has a bill on the budget. So now we go, we combine the two, we negotiate, parts of the Senate bill combined with the House and the conferees get together and Ted Cruz is simply saying, “You can’t add things to it, Dingy Harry, that we didn’t vote on.” (imitating Reid) “Well, you can’t say that, why, you school yard bully, school yard bully!”

The thing is, when was the last time a Republican went to Washington and talked to the Democrats like this in the Senate? Dingy Harry is spitting mad, ’cause this is not how we do things around here. So Ted Cruz Monday night on the Senate floor decided to respond, and he and Dingy Harry, presiding officer of the Senate Joe Donnelly, had this little exchange.

CRUZ: I wasn’t aware we were in a school yard.

REID: There’s either an objection or no objection. Let’s hear — this — we’ve had enough reserving the right to object.

CRUZ: Reserving the right to object.

REID: Mr. President, there’s no such thing. Okay?

CRUZ: Mr. President, I object.

DONNELLY: Is there objection?

CRUZ: Yes. I object.

DONNELLY: Objection is heard. The clerk will read the bill for a third time.

RUSH: (imitating Reid) “There’s either an objection or no objection, let’s hear, we’ve had enough reserving the right to object.” “Okay, I’ll object.” “You can’t do that! You can’t do that. This is not the way we do things.” Anyway, I wanted you to hear this ’cause Cruz has just got the Democrats — and, by the way, a lot of Republicans, “Oh, Jesus, he’s getting in trouble, my God, could this guy tone it down. He’s being too pure, my gosh. This guy, oh, gee whiz.” But this is what he was sent there to do.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So let me review. Ted Cruz says (paraphrasing), “Okay, we got our bill, you can’t go to conference with the House and put things in there we didn’t vote on, like raising taxes.” Dingy Harry says, “You’re acting like school yard bully! You can’t come in here and push everybody around.” Ted Cruz says, “I wasn’t aware we were in a school yard.” Harry Reid said, “Look, you’re a very junior senator from Texas, just shut up just make your objection and move on.” The next day, Tuesday, yesterday afternoon in Washington, Ted Cruz took to the floor of the Senate and responded to Dingy Harry.

CRUZ: I rise today in praise of Majority Leader Harry Reid. Yesterday our esteemed majority leader said the following. Quote, “My friend from Texas is like the school yard bully. He pushes everyone around and is losing, and instead of playing the game according to the rules, he not only takes the ball home with him, but he changes the rules.” Today, Leader Reid continued his demonstration of civility, referring to me as the, quote, “very junior senator from Texas.” As I noted yesterday, the Senate is not a school yard. Setting aside the irony of calling someone a bully and then shouting them down when they attempt to respond, today I wish simply to commend my friend from Nevada for his candor.

RUSH: Oh, my friends you just don’t do this to Dingy Harry if you’re Republican. You’re supposed to shut up. This means that Ted Cruz is a purist, and he’s gonna be responsible for Republicans losing in the Senate acting this way. He better be very, very careful. They’ll be all over him.