If you look at this picture taken during the 2013 non-shutdown government shutdown, you might think Utah Senator Mike Lee and Texas Senator Ted Cruz are two conservatives of a similar mindset – each willing to support the other.

Ted Cruz and Mike Lee lg

However, if you forward the time machine a few months later you’ll find another optic.

This time it’s early 2014 and Senator Rand Paul and Senator Ted Cruz are discussing the pre-mid-term State of the Union with a rather alarming message.  Neither one of them was going to offer support to any non incumbent GOP challenger in primary races.

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/428738262895955968

Both Rand Paul and Ted Cruz saying they were not going to support the same ideological political base that brought them into office.

Rand Paul said: “I will stay out of any race that involves an incumbent“. Looking toward Paul, Ted Cruz responded: “I’ll likely do the same“. (link)

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz were supported by the Tea Party, and when no-one would give each of them a shot at victory it was the Tea Party and grassroots conservative movement which boosted them both to victory.

Back in January of 2014 their statement of unwillingness to support any GOP challenger struck me as rather, well, selfish and self-centered. After all, were it not for the efforts of their own supporters to unseat incumbents, neither of them would have made it to the Senate.  Yet in 2014 they were unwilling to do the same for like-minded patriots like Matt Bevin (KY) in GOP Primary races.

Now it might sound like I’m pouring salt on an old wound than needs to heal.  But there’s something more important going on here.  Something that no-one is paying attention to.

The Establishment GOP, those same people who Rand Paul and Ted Cruz chose to stand beside in 2014, are now trying to take down Mike Lee in Utah.

[…]  Sen. Mike Lee might face a tough race for the GOP nomination in 2016 from Josh Romney (link)

Yeah, go figure.

Mike Lee 1The Decepticon ESTABLISHMENT GOP leveraged their political power to threaten Rand Paul and Ted Cruz who ultimately sat on the sidelines as the grassroots, us pesky bitter clingers, fought tooth and nail against the Decepticon Establishment.

Now that same professional political class wants to elect Josh Romney as the next Senator from Utah.

The GOP wants to take down Mike Lee and replace him with Josh Romney.

It’s annoying in the extreme to see this unfold.  However, it’s beyond infuriating to see the establishment wade into a 2016 primary race, to defeat a principled conservative, knowing they demanded no challengers to their establishment 2014 candidates – with Rand Paul and Ted Cruz going along with it.

So which is it?

Are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz: a.) Stupid, b.) Naive, or c.) Self interested jerks?

You decide.

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