The Washington Post was in Gloating Mode on Thursday against Republicans. The front page of the free Express tabloid showed an elephant’s trunk waving a white flag. The headline: "IT'S OVER. FOR NOW." (Somehow, they failed to show Obama waving a white flag when he “solved” Syria’s chemical-weapons problem.)
On page 3 was a nasty Associated Press article by Donna Cassata on how a selfish Ted Cruz has enriched his own PAC by pleasing the “far right flank” at the expense of a “heavy toll” on the party’s standing:
Other Republicans who repeatedly had warned the two about their quixotic move took little pleasure in saying "I-told-you-so." After they failed to block the biggest expansion of the health care law, the shutdown and near default left the GOP reeling. (Emphasis mine.)
The Post tabloid left out Rep. Peter King calling Cruz “fraudulent from the start.” It then continued about selfish Cruz:
His defiance has been wildly cheered by outside conservative groups that have made money on the months-long dispute and the far right flank that hails Cruz and Lee for what they call a principled, courageous stand.
But among Senate Republicans, Cruz and Lee are near pariahs, publicly slammed for a tactic that has taken a heavy toll on the GOP's standing and privately criticized for helping outside groups targeting Republican incumbents before next year's congressional elections.
Cruz, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, has seized the headlines and collected nearly $800,000 for his political action committee in the past three months.
The Express cover urged reader to page 13, where Post reporter David Fahrenthold’s conservatives-get-crushed story. (It was one of several on the regular Post’s front page). It began:
It was over. They lost.
On Wednesday, those two ugly facts began to sink in among the House’s hard-core conservatives. For nearly three years, they had effectively led the House itself — drawing their power from the intimidating sense that they were capable of anything. They often compared themselves to William Wallace, the Scottish rebel who (at least in the movies) succeeded because he refused to compromise.
But then — just like in the movies — “Braveheart” died.
On Wednesday, conservatives’ frontal attack on President Obama’s signature health-care law had ended after a government shutdown, a major decline in Republican popularity and a final compromise that gave them almost none of what they had wanted.
...The conservatives — having taken the ultimate hardball tactic of refusing to fund the government unless “Obamacare” was defunded — were unhappy that Democrats had played so tough in response.
The liberal readership of the Post looked obvious from the list of most popular pages as of 1:15 Eastern time:
1. Ted Cruz, one sore loser
2. Business groups stand by Boehner, plot against tea party
3. House conservatives face up to their defeat
4. Government reopens after shutdown; Obama urges Congress to resist 'extremes'
5. Conservatism needs to lighten up
