The trashing of Ted Cruz continues apace in the bien-pensant MSM. From the New York Times, to the Washington Post, to Politico and elsewhere, the liberal media has the new Republican Senator from Texas in its sights.
Joe Scarborough is clearly camped out on the Cruz-bashing bandwagon. Earlier this month, so offended by Cruz was the sensitive Scarborough that he wouldn't deign to mention him by name. Today, not to be outdone by Frank Bruni, who called Cruz "an ornery, swaggering piece of work," Scarborough declared that Cruz acts like "a carnival barker at a local Republican event." View the video after the jump.
Cruz surely wears the MSM's contempt as a badge of courage. Still, the double-standard and hypocrisy are breathtaking. As others have observed, the MSM celebrates Elizabeth Warren as the new "sheriff" when she grandstands at the expense of some hapless regulators. But when Ted Cruz asks tough questions of a man manifestly unfit to run the mammoth organization central to our nation's security, well, that's simply not cricket, m'dear!
MARK HALPERIN: [Ted Cruz is] surprising me. Look, in the Senate today, you can get away with behaving like an independent actor, just basically an entrepreneur, as long as the people back home support you. And Texas is a pretty conservative state, so I don't think he worries about losing his seat there. You know, you look at other senators like Mike Lee, like even Jim DeMint, who have been independent actors. Ted Cruz is taking it so far as a freshman, in his first weeks in the Senate, to a different level. I think he's underestimating the extent to which operating like this will limit his effectiveness over the long term.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Mike Lee is a great example. He's a guy that--very conservative. This isn't about being conservative! It's about going out of your way acting like you're, you know, a carnival barker at a local Republican event.
