The writer/editor in me loves good word smithing & today's Washington Post has at least one lip-smackin' great example in Philip Bump's piece for The Fix, The exceptional campaign timing of Ted Cruz’s ferocious floor speech.
I'd already seen reports on Senator Cruz's stunning smack-down of Mitch McConnell on other sites, most emphasizing his apparent drive to "out-Trump Trump." It took The Fix piece to point out the timing - a diatribe against one of his party's most powerful figures just an hour after nabbing the endorsement of a notable conservative. Let's look at Philip Bump's neatly crafted reporting:
It's impossible to look at the senator's vehement speech -- which our veteran man on the Hill, Paul Kane, said was "unlike anything I've ever seen" - - -- outside of the context of Cruz's presidential campaign.
Earlier today, Cruz unveiled the endorsement of the prominent conservative personality Brent Bozell.
If it is purely a coincidence that the Bozell endorsement was released an hour before Cruz made headlines by attacking McConnell over the same issue, it's an extremely fortuitous one. (Editor's note: There are no coincidences in politics. At least not ones like this.) Cruz was reacting to McConnell's actions on the floor, but likely had some sense of where the wind was blowing. Not that Cruz never offered vehement floor speeches before he was running for president, of course, but in the scramble for headlines in the Trump-dominated moment, this was a pretty good two-fer.
It's also worth picking up another point made by Kane on Twitter. As noted above, Cruz has repeatedly refused to criticize Trump, ostensibly because he won't play the "media game" pitting Republican against Republican. "In my time in the Senate I haven't impugned the character of Republicans or Democrats and I don't intend to start today," he told Bloomberg's Mark Halperin on July 18.
He intended to start a week later.
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As reported on Breitbart.com, Mr. Bozell's complete statement read:
I am glad to see Senator Cruz entering the race. He came to Washington promising to stand, unequivocally, for conservative values and principles and has delivered big time, something that few politicians in Washington ever do.
The conservative base will rally around him when they see he is uncompromising in his beliefs and he has the chops to take down the Clinton machine. There are lots of good conservatives running, but he has an immediate edge.
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