“We have to show we can work with the Democrats!” So Romney shut up.  But what Cruz’s point is very simple (summarized): “What are you beating up on me for?  I’m not the enemy.  I’m not the Democrat Party.  Why don’t you start talking about them this way?  They’re the ones actually doing a deal that’s going to put this country at risk.  Why don’t you say that?”  Effectively what Cruz is saying is, “I’m not the problem here, Mitt!  And this isn’t ‘rhetoric.’ I’m simply citing facts.”

So now people are starting to ask: “Is Cruz following in the Trump mold?  Is Trump serving to show the way for other Republicans how to respond?”  Well, maybe Trump is, but Cruz doesn’t need to be shown.  This is standard operating procedure for Cruz.  I mean, it was just two weeks ago that he went to the floor of the Senate and accused the majority leader of lying to him face to face.  Now he’s firing back at Romney.  But try this headline.  Well, it’s not a headline. It’s a paragraph subhead.

“Both Obama and Romney have called Cruz’s remarks inappropriate.”  What has Cruz done?  He’s “maintained that [Obama] would become a leading state-sponsor of terror if the agreement it struck with Iran makes it past Congress. He and others have argued that Iran would use a windfall from sanctions relief to finance terror abroad.” He has said on that basis alone this deal ought not get done!  And then Romney piped up and said in a tweet (paraphrased): “Gosh, this rhetoric isn’t helpful.  Gosh, this rhetoric isn’t helpful!”

Cruz fired back:  “You’re telling me what’s not helpful? You got clobbered by Obama for a reason! You got clobbered because you backed off.  You got clobbered because you didn’t have the guts to keep going.”  So this is… I like this, folks.  Whatever Trump’s responsible for it or not.