Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, has ratcheted up his criticisms of Sen. Ted Cruz, calling the Texas tea party hero a poor political planner and demanding he apologize to fellow Republicans for his relentless push to defund Obamacare.
Mr. Cruz’s filibuster and ongoing rhetoric about the need to topple Obamacare was a shaky and impulsive strategy, Mr. Norquist suggested Tuesday.
“Ted Cruz is a very bright, very serious conservative, but in this case and in a couple of cases earlier, he doesn’t think through things strategically,” Mr. Norquist said, as Breitbart reported. “If you do something, then what will Obama do in return? What would Harry Reid do in return? When you’re playing chess, the other team gets to make a move, too.”
Mr. Norquist previously suggested Mr. Cruz was guilty of showboating, simply employing a political “tactic,” for which he should apologize.
“He needs to apologize to all the Republicans who were misled about this strategy that he didn’t implement,” Mr. Norquist said in an earlier interview with Newsmax.
The tax reform activist also mocked Mr. Cruz, saying that perhaps the senator was now “wise and more experienced” and that he might also have learned the value of vetting his planned political moves “with some other people,” and asking first: “’Hey, I have an idea, what do you think?’”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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