From Reason Magazine:
The ‘Isolationist’ Smear Against Ted Cruz
I didn’t realize Jennifer Rubin, one of the WaPo‘s pet conservatives, had trashed Senator Ted Cruz as a throwback isolationist from the 1930’s. But then I seldom read the WaPo.
After the latest Republican presidential debate, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin argued that Sen. Ted Cruz had undone himself “courting” the “Trumpkin base,” sinking “further into the far-right brew of isolationism and xenophobia.”
Characterizing Cruz as a far-right xenophobe, though, certainly destroys Senator Marco Rubio’s case that Cruz secretly, in his heart of hearts, favors a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. Then again, Rubin may have misremembered how much she did like the Rubio/Schumer Gang of 8 plan, “…the proposal is greatly encouraging on two fronts.”
Count me as un-encouraged then, as was Senator Cruz. And count me even less encouraged now. I’m neither xenophilic nor oikophobic. Senator Rubio’s defenders seem to have a touch of each.
This is unfortunate, since I would happily vote for Rubio in the general election, but I think he’s picked a fight that emphasizes his greatest weakness while attempting to damage the candidate most likely to prevent a Trump nomination. Trump is the primary beneficiary of Rubio’s attack.