Diane Medved does not in any way create an equivalency between Ted Cruz and Tom Harkin. That is you conflating it. In fact, most of the names she mentions in her piece are the conservative extremist noise machine of Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Cruz among others.

What she does say is that Harkin believes the sooner Democrats get back to a progressive populist message, the better and says "the left" bashes anyone striking a moderate tone as avoiding the need to focus on populist issues.

You made it up. There was no comparison of Ted Cruz and Tom Harkin as though they are equivalent cases of extremes.