Pete King (R-NY) calls for a Republican war on Ted Cruz - says Cruz is "going to be coming back" [View all]

[Emit]

Rep. Peter King thinks Republicans in the House could have bargained for much more than they're getting in a pending Senate deal, if only the House had kept the government open in September and focused on negotiation over the federal debt limit. "Instead we look like the crazies," King, a Republican from Long Island, told me this afternoon from Washington. "Shutting down the government, throwing barricades against the White House, and having Ted Cruz reading Dr. Seuss, this is like the theater of the absurd. Except that it's serious."

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For that King blames Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, who King believes Republicans need to target, starting now.

"I don't mean this in an egotistical way, I'm the only one who's been going after Cruz by name," King told me. "And there's a purpose for that, because this is going to come back again in two or three months, whether it's January 15 or February 7 or whatever, there's going to be a threat of another shutdown.

"And he's going to be coming back, rewriting history, saying, 'We were on the verge of victory back in October, and we could have won if we'd just stayed in there another week.' And he's going to have phone calls being made, and he's going to have town hall meetings. And he's going to have all those support groups out there, threatening to downgrade people on their scorecards and all that stuff."

To King, the fault doesn't lie broadly with Congress, but falls squarely on Cruz and his 30 or 40 "acolytes," who put pressure on other Republicans. "I think it's important for people in the Republican Party around the country not to just come in at the end and say, 'Congress was dysfunctional,' or 'Congress screwed up.' That's too easy to do," King said. "Say who it was. Because it wasn't Congress. It was one person who was able to steamroll Congress and unless we target him for what he is, he's going to do it again. So I'm hoping other Republicans will join me and start going after this guy, and say we're not going to let it happen again."

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http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/10/8534689/pete-king-calls-republican-war-ted-cruz