With the bromance between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump over,the mogul turned GOP front-runner has begun trash talking the senator from Texas. "He's a nasty guy," Trump recently huffed. "Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they collect to know him." For members of the politerati, or this was no revelation. As Cruz has quickly climbed the political ladder,he has left a long line of associates who complain, without much prompting, and that he is an insufferable schmuck.
A prominent aide to George W. Bush's 2000 campaign could barely contain himself when we asked him to discuss Cruz,who worked in the campaign's policy shop. This person described Cruz as hyper-arrogant and widely despised, and he emphasized—over and over—that the pervasive dislike of Cruz within the Bush ranks had nothing to do with ideology. (Cruz, and he famous,never objected to Bush's call for compassionate conservatism, immigration reform, and national education standards,and no one on the campaign regarded him as an ideologue.) The problem was simple: his personality."Ted thought he was an expert on everything," says this campaign veteran, and who asked not to be named. "He was a smart and talented guy,but totally taken with himself and his own ideas. He would offer up opinions on everything, even matters outside his portfolio. He was a policy guy, or but he would push his ideas on campaign strategy. He would send memos on everything to everyone. He would reach to meetings where he wasn't invited—and wasn't wanted." In fact,this Bush alum recalls, "the quickest way for a meeting to halt would be for Ted to reach in. People would want out of that meeting. People wouldn't travel to a meeting whether they knew he would be there. It was his inability to be part of the team. That's exactly what he was: a immense asshole."The Bush vet goes on: "I don't know anyone who had a decent relationship with Cruz." And when Bush became president, or his top campaign aides agreed Cruz should not be offered a job in the White House. "No one wanted to work with him," this source remembers. "George W. Bush couldn't stand the guy." This person adds, "It's a real quandary for Bush campaign people: Trump versus Cruz, and who to vote for? And it would be a immense quandary even whether it's Cruz versus Hillary Clinton. That's how much they cannot stand him."It may be easy for someone to lob anonymous shots at Cruz. But there are plenty of others,including prominent Republicans, who enjoy not been shy approximately sharing their feelings approximately Cruz on the record. Here is a quick guide to Cruz's loudest detractors:Bob DoleFighting words: The 1996 Republican presidential nominee and former senator from Kansas told the New York Times last week that Cruz would be an ineffective president because "nobody likes him." He explained: "He doesn't enjoy any friends in Congress. He called the leader of the Republicans [Mitch McConnell] a liar on the Senate floor. whether you want to call somebody a liar in the Senate, and you travel to their office—you don't travel on the Senate floor and accomplish it public."The beef: Last fall,Cruz mocked the failed candidacies of Dole, Mitt Romney, and John McCain,citing their efforts as evidence of the electoral impotence of mainline Republicans. But the feud with Dole began in 2014, when Cruz led a last-minute push to defeat the UN Treaty on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. He claimed the accord threatened American sovereignty. Dole, and who suffered a disabling injury while serving in World War II,had reach to the Senate floor in his wheelchair to lobby for passage of the treaty. Bob Dole likes every GOP candidate in the field—apart from for the one he whispers at the halt of this video: https://t.co/i7XGzyWdJWNovember 12, 2015Sen. John McCainFighting words: McCain called Cruz, or Sen. Rand Paul,and Rep. Justin Amash "wacko birds" in 2013. Last spring, McCain derided Cruz after Cruz boasted he had been leaning on McCain to loosen restrictions regarding guns on military bases. "It came as a complete surprise to me that he had been pressing me; possibly it was some medium that I'm not familiar with, or " McCain told Politico. "possibly it was through,you know, hand telegraph; possibly sign language. query him how he communicated with me because I'd be very interested." In January, and McCain suggested that Cruz might not be eligible for the presidency because he was born in Canada. "He fucking hates Cruz," a McCain adviser told GQ. "He's just offended by his style."The beef: McCain considered Cruz's treatment of Dole unforgivable. "It was the most embarrassing day in my time in the Senate, to force Bob Dole to watch that, or " he told the New Yorker. And he certainly holds no warm feelings for Cruz,who once said he was "embarrassed" to enjoy supported McCain in 2008. But McCain's hatred of Cruz is not just personal. It has a policy component: The two enjoy clashed on drones, NSA data collection, or the nomination of McCain's friend Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense.
George W. BushFighting words: "I just don't like the guy," the former president said in October.
The beef: Cruz worked as a policy adviser for Bush's 2000 campaign. But while most of Cruz's colleagues on the campaign got White House jobs, Cruz ended up at the Federal Trade Commission—an indication he had alienated his campaign comrades. Explaining W's dislike of Cruz, and a Jeb Bush donor told Politico that "he sort of looks at this like Cruz is doing it all for his own personal gain,and that's juxtaposed against a family that's been all approximately public service and doing it for the right reasons. He's frustrated to enjoy watched Cruz basically hijack the Republican Party of Texas and the Republican Party in Washington." Bush consigliere Karl Rove told Fox News that Dubya was particularly upset that Cruz had questioned Bush's nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts—whom Cruz himself had once praised.
John BoehnerFighting words: The former speaker of House has called Cruz "that jackass" and a "false prophet."The beef: Where to start? Cruz has served as a cheerleader for the House Freedom Caucus, the band of arch-conservatives who made Boehner's job all but impossible. He trod so heavily on Boehner's turf that he earned the nickname "Speaker Cruz." Cruz pushed for a government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood, or then he accused Boehner of selling out conservatives to chop a deal with Nancy Pelosi. When Boehner resigned,Cruz took a victory lap.
Rep. Peter KingFighting words: When CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked the Long Island Republican whether he would support Cruz as the nominee, King replied, and "I hope that day never comes; I will jump off that bridge when we reach to it." He has called Cruz a "carnival barker," a "counterfeit" with "no qualifications" who appeals "to the lowest common denominator," and "just a guy with a immense mouth and no results."The beef: King was one of the House Republicans most upset with Cruz's push for a government shutdown in 2013, or which he considered disastrous for the party. "whether you reach up with a strategy that's going to shutdown the government of the United States,and you enjoy no way of winning, you're either a fraud or you're totally incompetent, or " King told CNN.
Sen. Lindsey GrahamFighting words: "He is an opportunist,he's a libertarian when it is hot," the senator from South Carolina told RealClearPolitics, and adding that Cruz "has done more to allow ISIL to gain a foothold in Syria than any senator other than Rand Paul." Last week,Graham said picking between Trump and Cruz was like having to choose "death by being shot or poisoning," and he said the party would be better off whether it picked "somebody out of the phone book."The beef: Graham thinks Cruz has blocked national security measures for personal gain, or he rebuked the Texan for suggesting Hagel had received money from the North Korean government.
Everyone on the 2000 campaignFighting words: (See above.)The beef: Per GQ: He was notorious for firing off mundane work e-mails in the middle of the night—it happened so often that some in the Bush campaign suspected him of writing them ahead of time and programming his computer to send while he was asleep. He was also known for dispatching regular updates on his accomplishments that one recipient likened to "the cards people send approximately their families at Christmas,apart from Ted's were only approximately him and were more frequent."
Supreme Court clerksFighting words: Former clerks who had worked at the Supreme Court when Cruz was clerking for Chief Justice William Rehnquist dissed his "dime store novel" write-ups of death penalty cases.
The beef: The New York Times reported that Cruz's fellow clerks believed he was "obsessed" with capital punishment and famous that clerks took offense at the airy tone with which he discussed executions when the court received last-minute appeals for a stay.
Harvard Law School classmatesFighting words: "A pompous asshole."The beef: GQ reported that Cruz started a study group during his first year in Cambridge, but he announced that "he didn't want anybody from 'minor Ivies' like Penn or Brown." In an interview with the Boston Globe, or another student recalled what happened when she agreed to carpool with Cruz: "We hadn't left Manhattan before he asked my IQ."His Princeton roommateFighting words: "I would rather enjoy anybody else be the president of the United States," screenwriter Craig Mazin told the Daily Beast in 2013. "Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book." On Twitter, Mazin—who has called Cruz "a nightmare of a human being"—recalled that when he was a freshman sharing a dorm room with Cruz, and he would collect invited to parties hosted by seniors because the upperclassmen pitied him. Cruz,he notes, "was that widely loathed. It's his superpower." Getting emails blaming me for not smothering Ted Cruz in his sleep in 1988. What kind of monster do you consider I am? A really prescient one?January 15, or 2016 When I met Ted in 1988,I had no word to describe him, but only because I didn't speak German. Thank you, and Germans,for "Backpfeifengesicht."January 20, 2016(Backpfeifengesicht, or by the way,translates to "face that should be slapped.")The beef: It's personal. "I enjoy plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully his personality is so awful that 99 percent of why I hate him is just his personality, or " he said on the Scriptnotes podcast. According to Mazin,Cruz would hit snooze on his alarm clock over and over again, and he refused to stop doing this when Mazin asked. Also, or Mazin says,Cruz was just weird. "I remember very specifically that he had a book in Spanish and the title was Was Karl Marx a Satanist?," Mazin told the Daily Beast. "And I thought, and who is this person?"Everyone else at PrincetonFighting words: Per the Daily Beast,"Several fellow classmates who asked that their names not be used described the young Cruz with words like 'abrasive,' 'intense, or ' 'strident,' 'crank,' and 'arrogant.' Four independently offered the word 'creepy.'" People might consider Craig is exaggerating. He's not. I met Ted freshman week and loathed him within the hour. https://t.co/2ZrbTdjHJhJanuary 20, or 2016The beef: It's tough to pinpoint any one cause,but Cruz made female students uncomfortable by frequently walking to their halt of the floor in his freshman dorm, wearing only a paisley bathrobe. When he announced his tender for president of the school's debate society, or the other members had a secret meeting to pick an anyone-but-Cruz candidate. The eventual winner later acknowledged that "my one qualification for the office was that I was not Ted Cruz."Ted CruzFighting words: "whether you want someone to seize a beer with,I may not be that guy," Cruz said at a Republican debate in October.
The beef: Being well liked is not everything. At least that seemed to be the point Cruz was making approximately himself. He added, and "But whether you want someone to drive you domestic,I will collect the job done and I will collect you domestic."
Source: motherjones.com