The Week in Pictures -- Tax Day Edition

From the guys at Powerline Blog:

Rush Limbaugh Responds to Trump's Accusation That Ted Cruz's Superior Delegate Operation is "Unfair:" "He's Not Cheating, He's Winning"

From Ace of Spades HQ:

Well, as AllahPundit notes, there's some truth in this: The game was set up to favor Establishment picks in Colorado. The problem is, no establishment candidate actually survived to this point, except for the deeply weird and unthinkable John Kasich.

So yes, the rules were set up -- long ago -- to favor an Establishment choice. But none showed up for the big dance, so Ted Cruz waltzed out with the prize.

This exposes Trump in major ways, beyond the fact that he's lost Colorado.

"[T]wo key Trump claims have fallen apart thanks to his inability to fight for delegates properly," writes Ben Shapiro: "[H]e's not a great dealmaker, and he doesn't hire all the very best people."

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If anything, in fact, the delegate-wrangling process should be a godsend for Trump. It moves the race out of the ballot box, where he's vulnerable to a surge of #NeverTrump votes as the primaries near their conclusion, to the backroom, where he can work his fatcat dealmaking magic. In practice, Cruz is beating the pants off of him, something that should never happen per the mystique that surrounds Trump of being a master negotiator. Noah Rothman claimed this morning that the fact that two of Trump's kids failed to register in New York as Republicans in time to vote in this year's primary is a microcosm of Trump's disorganization generally, which is fair enough. But I'd add to that that him getting consistently beaten by Cruz at the delegate level is a microcosm of how Trump's image as wheeler-dealer extraordinaire is oversold. An ingenious salesman should not be at this sort of chronic disadvantage against a guy who’s not very personally likable, whose methods are loathed by the establishmentarians who "rigged" the system, and who’s operating at a financial handicap compared to Trump. But he is. How come?

Trump's sales pitch has been -- implicitly -- "Sure, I've done a lot of shady deals and exploited the US bankruptcy laws for my advantage, but now I'm offering to bring my high level of caginess, toughness, and smarts and use them on behalf of you, the Republican Primary Voter."

Okay, sounds good.

What happens when Trump turns out to not be particularly cagey, tough, and smart?

The rules of the game were laid out from the start: A real #Winner should be exploiting the rules for his own advantage, not reduced to whining, essentially, "The other guys is better at this game than me and it's not fair."

As said by John Mason, played by Sean Connery, "Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen."

Yes, Melania Trump may look like the prom queen, but remember, she's the third try, and Marla Maples definitely wasn't the Prom Queen.

The Week in Pictures -- March Madness Edition

From the guys at Powerline Blog:

The Week in Pictures -- Debate Throwdown Edition

From the guys at Powerline Blog:

Ted Cruz Best Choice to End Lawlessness at Justice Department

From https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2016/01/26/ted-cruz-best-choice-to-end-lawlessness-at-justice-department/ via H/T at Instapundit:

Donald Trump doesn’t talk much about this radicalization at Obama’s Justice Department. When Trump touches on Obama’s radicalization of the ministerial state, Trump’s understanding is a mile wide and an inch deep. Ted Cruz has an understanding of Justice Department radicalization that is a mile wide and miles deep.

I know this because Senator Cruz is one of the few Senators who display any comprehension of the radical transformation taking place inside Justice. When Holder or other administration officials go before the Judiciary Committee, Cruz is one of the Senators who can be counted on to conduct real oversight.

If Trump does win the Presidency, I want Cruz as AG or for SCOTUS.

The Other Reason The Washington Elite Hate Ted Cruz

From The Federalist via H/T at Instapundit:

Because the threat smart members of the Washington political elite truly believe in is not Ted Cruz, but the model he represents: that the path for an ambitious freshman politician to achieve leadership of the Republican Party in this day and age is not the normal give and take and deference to leaders and precedent and the way we do things around here, but instead to take a flamethrower to this system from day one. Regardless of whether Cruz wins a general election, his nomination could fundamentally transform the political incentives of the Senate and change the internal dynamics of the Senate Republican Conference. It shows that you can get a shot at the presidency not by playing along, but by playing your own game.

The potential of every two years having someone walk through the door in each new Senate class who thinks they could be the next potential Ted Cruz is an absolute nightmare for those who have thrived in their cushy lifestyles as stewards of the world’s most exclusive club. And that is why his nomination is unacceptable.

Wait, I thought it was perfectly fine for a relatively unknown politician to stop by the Senate for a cup of coffee, then immediately hit the campaign trail uttering larger than life pronouncements in front of Styrofoam columns. But then, whether the RNC chooses Trump, Cruz or Rubio, as Glenn has noted, Beltway Elites chose the form of their Destructor in 2008.

This could explain why the Dear Leader has no friends in the Senate.

Which Tribe are You?

From Powerline Blog:

But right now Trump and lots of liberals are seizing upon Tribe’s tendentious opinion that Ted Cruz is not a “natural born citizen” under the Constitution and is therefore ineligible to be president. Actually Tribe’s argument is slightly more subtle—that Cruz’s own constitutional “originalism” would call for a narrow reading of the “natural born citizen” clause, especially if, like Cruz (and Trump) you challenge the “birthright citizenship” reading of the 14th Amendment. But this argument is ridiculous, too. I think Cruz easily satisfies Blackstone’s common law understanding of what “natural born citizen” means, and in any case common law is not constitutional law.
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But second, for liberals who are hanging on Tribe’s birther opinion, let’s also note that Tribe has argued, in federal court, that Obama’s so-called “Clean Power Plan” is unconstitutional. So liberals: if Tribe is right about Cruz, why isn’t he also right about the EPA’s ukase? He’s your favorite con law guy after all. Expect to hear crickets chirping on this question.

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Iran’s Capture of a Female American Sailor Reveals Feminism’s Foolish Double Standard

From National Review:

As the Pentagon moves inexorably to put females into combat units, let’s hope for the sake of our military capabilities that this abstract ideology holds firm. But it almost surely won’t. The enemy capture of female soldiers during a hot war will in fact provoke even greater than usual political pressure to quickly rescue them, if necessary overriding sounder but more time-consuming strategies. The prospect of a female soldier being raped by her captors or, say, “merely” being beheaded will sideline all other military considerations. If two platoons are captured, the one with females in it will undoubtedly take precedence in any rescue effort, thus jeopardizing unit morale and cohesiveness.

The NAGS don't want equal treatment, they want preferred treatment.

Cruz Is Playing the Media Perfectly

From National Review:

One thing that frustrated even the most ardent supporters of George W. Bush’s administration was his refusal to hit back hard at over-the-top, abominable personal attacks against him and his family, including his daughters, by those in the media and in the culture at large.

Bush revered the office of the president and, unlike his successor, held it to a higher standard than did gutter snipes such as Sean Penn or the New York Times.

This is why Newt Gingrich drew cheers and praise during the 2012 election cycle when he hit back at the media for its open bias. Who can forget that CNN’s John King opened a primary debate by asking Gingrich questions about his ex-wife (something to remember every time we’re told Bill Clinton is off limits)?

This election cycle, the role of credible media tormentor has been notably filled not by Donald Trump but by Ted Cruz, and it’s resonating more because Cruz has a clearer path to the nomination than Gingrich did in 2012.

Punching back twice as hard.

Read the whole thing.

Washington Post cartoon inadvertently shows why kids should be off limits

From The Washington Examiner via H/T at Instapundit:

Saying that Cruz’s children are fair game because he thrust them into the spotlight would mean punishing innocent kids for the actions of their father. So, if you accept Telnaes’ argument, the case against the cartoon becomes even stronger.

I would take that one step further. Telnaes argument just legitimized every comment about Chelsea during the Clinton Presidency. So, when Rush Limbaugh accidentally posted a picture of a beagle when discussing Chelsea, she was fair game, using the Telnaes’, and now the Washington Post's argument/justification.

Ted Cruz shows how Hillary trains her lap dogs

From The American Thinker Blog: Turning the drawing board on a Pulitzer Prize winning liberal cartoonist who consider his daughters trained monkeys, Senator Ted Cruz (R)--or a staffer--tweeted a devastatingly accurate cartoon portrayal of the mainstream media's adoration of Hillary.

Other Pulitzer Prize worthy cartoonists quickly followed.

Will the lap dog press howl in protest? Bow wow.

Seems like a better idea for a cartoon: Hillary and her lapdogs. pic.twitter.com/dou9c7fS4U

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 23, 2015

LOL @UnitedCitizen01 @tedcruz @WashingtonPost #Lapdog #Presstitution pic.twitter.com/jCjLSvt7eP #Hillary2016 #Wapo #Parody #anntelnaes

— Chris P. Bacon (@CPBacon4CO) December 23, 2015

Update:

@BecketAdams @instapundit For full accuracy, both dogs should be vigorously humping her leg, even though they're neutered.

— chris sullivan (@navillus126) December 23, 2015

A couple of questions for Cruz-kids-as-monkeys cartoonist Ann Telnaes

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog: Too short to excerpt!

Hi Ann,

I saw your tweet in which you proclaimed, “Ted Cruz has put his children in a political ad- don't start screaming when editorial cartoonists draw them as well,” and I have a couple of of questions because Hillary Clinton put a picture of herself, her husband Bill, and their granddaughter, in a big political ad on her website.

So my questions for you are: [doesn't] this mean the grandkid is fair game for cartooning? So what animal would you use? If Hispanic kids are monkeys, and Hillary is pandering to Hispanics, what is appropriate here?

Oh. Keep in mind the other grandparents are Jewish. So many rich opportunities for ethic slurring. What does a Pulitzer Prize winner do?

Just wondering…. Th

omas Lifson

6 Times the Mainstream DC Media Ridiculed Children of Republicans

From Breitbart's Big Journalism:

One of the biggest lies told by our corrupt and rotting DC Media is the one that states that the children of politicians are off-limits. Unwritten or unspoken, there is no such rule. There is, of course, a strictly-enforced DC media rule about the children of Democrat politicians being off-limits. The children of Republican politicians, however, have always been fair game — and I’m not talking about in the left-wing fever swamps, but in mainstream outlets such as the Washington Post, CNN, NBC News, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and Salon.

An excellent example of this double standard occurred almost exactly a year ago when Elizabeth Lauten, a no-name Capitol Hill staffer, took to Facebook to criticize the behavior of President Obama’s two lovely teenage daughters during the President’s annual turkey pardon ceremony.

As documented by the Washington Free Beacon, the DC Media lost its ever-loving mind over this. Network news vans camped outside of the home of Lauten’s parents, the Washington Post “assigned one of its foreign affairs correspondents to comb through an archive of columns Lauten wrote for her college newspaper in 2006 and 2007. … Both ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today show devoted segments to the controversy on Sunday and Monday[.]”

Lauten apologized but still lost her job as a Communications Director for a Republican Congressman. And I am in no way defending her. Children of politicians should be off-limits. They are civilians, bystanders, innocents who should be allowed to live their own lives, enjoy their own opinions, and make their own mistakes without being dragged onto the national stage and used as a billy club against their parents.
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2.) CNN Mocks Physical Assault On Bristol Palin

3.) NBC News Attacks Mitt Romney’s Black Grandchild
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6.) Salon Mocks George W. Bush’s Daughters as Drunks

Now, find me an example of when the Media attacks the kids of a liberal?

Malia was documents as drinking and playing beer pong, when she went to visit Brown. Where's the Media coverage on that? She was even younger than the Bush Daughters.

Waiting........

Washington Post stoops to a new low going after Ted Cruz

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog: Imagine for a moment that the Washington Post had published a cartoon depicting Sasha and Malia Obama as monkeys, arguing that because the Obama daughters had campaigned for their father, they were fair game. I realize that such a scenario is unthinkable, that such a project would never pass review. Even a copy boy (if they still existed) would know that such a cartoon would be denounced as racist.

But when it comes to Ted Cruz, who happens to be Hispanic, no obstacle prevented publication of this cartoon, depicting his 4- and 7-year old children as monkeys:

Classy, Washington (Com)Post, just classy!

Ted Cruz Strikes Back at Washington Post Cartoonist for Mocking His Daughters -- They're Out of Your League

From Breitbart's Big Journalism:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate who’s currently surging in polls six weeks ahead of the first primary contests, fired back at a Washington Post cartoonist for mocking his daughters Caroline and Catherine.

“Classy,” Cruz tweeted in response, obviously sarcastically.

Classy. @washingtonpost makes fun of my girls. Stick w/ attacking me--Caroline & Catherine are out of your league. https://t.co/N61ys6z8w1

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 22, 2015

“Stick w/ attacking me–Caroline & Catherine are out of your league,” Cruz added.

The Post cartoonist, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ann Telnaes, drew up a Christmas-themed cartoon where the senator’s 5 and 7 year-old daughters are portrayed as monkeys on a leash. Meanwhile, Cruz himself is portrayed wearing a Santa Claus suit holding a crank music box to which the girls’ leashes are attached. Cruz’s wife and the girls’ mother, Heidi, is not in the cartoon.

Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props https://t.co/gKT8Jhjm17 pic.twitter.com/GNfoP4batF — Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) December 22, 2015

So will Hillary be next? She uses her grandchild in political ads.

Did Telnaes go after The Dear Leader? Sasha and Malia were used in political ads?

Waiting.......

Actor to Ted Cruz -- Stop butchering the 'Princess Bride'

From The Washington Examiner via h/T at Instapundit:

Shut up, you twit. That wasn't even your line.

An actor who played a major role in Ted Cruz's favorite movie "The Princess Bride" wants Cruz to stop quoting lines from the film as he runs for president.

Mandy Patinkin, who played Inigo Montoya in the movie, told The New York Times he doesn't like Cruz using the movie to make political points.

In October, for example, Cruz criticized the Times for defending Obamacare by claiming President Obama "misspoke" about some of its provisions by quoting the classic Inigo Montoya line in his best Spanish accent, "You keep using this word. I don't think it means what you think it means."

By “butchering,” he means “accurately quoting.”

Because it exposes, accurately that the Dear Leader is a liar!

Ted Cruz Introduces ‘State Refugee Security Act’ Authorizing Governors to Reject Syrian and Other Refugees

From Breitbart's Big Government:

GOP presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)is pushing his State Refugee Security Act of 2015 (S. 2363), now before the United States Senate for formal consideration.

Joined by his former boss, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican, Cruz said the two page bill would give Governors the right to reject the settlement of refugees from any nation in their state, at their sole discretion.

Cruz’s new proposal is the third in a series of anti-terrorist bills proposed recently by the junior Senator from Texas.

In November he introduced the Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act, which would “immediately bar refugees to the United States from any country, such as Iraq or Syria, that contains territory substantially controlled by a foreign terrorist organization.”

“The bill sunsets after three years so that Congress can reevaluate the global situation and either let the bill expire or reauthorize it with necessary modifications in light of changed circumstances,” according to a statement released by Cruz’s Senate office.

In January he introduced the Expatriot Terrorist Act of 2015, which would “remove U.S. citizenship from Americans who travel overseas to join ISIS and wage jihad.”

Go! Ted, Go!

Ted Cruz Knows His Princess Bride

From Patterico's Pontifications via H/T at Ace of Spades HQ:

And can recite it from memory - with the correct voices.

He does the voices and everything.

He’s a nerd! (That’s a compliment.) And without a doubt the coolest guy running for President.

Yet another reason to vote for this guy!

Understanding Ted Cruz’s Jedi Debate Skills

From The Daily Beast:

Marco Rubio may have stood out in the Republican debate, but if you ask competitive debaters, Ted Cruz was the hands-down winner.

Ted Cruz did well last night’s debate because he knows how to debate—literally.

Though the emerging pundit consensus seems to be that Marco Rubio won the night, Cruz nabbed what was arguably the biggest standout moment of the evening when he squared off with moderator Carlos Quintanilla and questioned the entire premise of the evening’s event. Whether he was conscious of this or not, the senator used a risky and controversial tactic used by high school debates champions the world over to deflate the moderator, win the crowd, and change the tenor of the evening.

The strategy he used is called running a kritik. Depending on what style of debate you’re doing and what league you’re in, kritiks can operate in a host of ways. The basic gist, though, is this: A kritik is an a priori argument, which means it has to be addressed before either side of the debate can move on to talk about anything else. The term “kritik” didn’t come into the common debate lexicon until the ’90s—long after Cruz’s days as a parliamentary debate champion were over.
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Quintanilla set him off by asking if his opposition to a deal House Republicans recently made to raise spending and avert government shutdowns until March of 2017 shows that the senator was “not the kind of problem solver American voters want?”

At this point, Cruz could have answered the question on its merits, explaining as he’s done a million times already that Americans want someone who will fight to shrink the government, even if it means refusing to compromise with Democrats and risking shutdown. But that isn’t what Cruz did. Instead, he questioned the moral authority of Quintanilla to question him.

“You know, let me say something at the outset,” the senator replied. “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media.”

The crowd cheered.

“This is not a cage match,” the senator continued, reiterating his criticism of CNBC’s management of the event. “And, you look at the questions—‘Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?’ ‘Ben Carson, can you do math?’ ‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’ ‘Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?’ ‘Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?”

Quintanilla sputtered.

“Does this count?” he interjected, over the roaring crowd. “Do we get credit for this one?”

“And Carl, I’m not finished yet,” he continued. “The contrast with the Democratic debate, where every fawning question from the media was, “Which of you is more handsome and wise? Let me be clear. The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense than every participant in the Democratic debate. That debate reflected a debate between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.”

Cruz's intelligence is what really scares the Drive-By Media. In the past, the Drive-By media has portrayed Republicans as dumb. It can't be done to Cruz. If anyone listens to him for just a dew minutes, his intellect stands out and it scares all liberals.

BOOM -- Ted Cruz Eviscerates Left Media in Debate

From Breitbart's Big Government:

Just watch the video. No comment required.