Head of GOP Anti-Tea Party Group: Ted Cruz Should Leave Party

The leader of a super PAC that is using donations from labor unions to wage war on the Tea Party went on MSNBC to say that Sen. Ted Cruz should leave the Republican party. 

Former Rep. Steven LaTourette is a member in the establishment’s war on the Tea Party. His deceptively named “Defending Main Street” PAC is being financed primarily by Wall Street and labor unions, which have contributed at least 20% to the group’s fundraising haul. 

In an appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word on Tuesday, LaTourette said that Cruz was “reprehensible” for forcing Republicans to go on the record to advance a bill to raise the debt ceiling without reducing spending. Cruz forced those like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to vote to move the bill to the floor. McConnell said he had to act to “protect the country” before then voting against final passage of the bill, which passed with no Republican support. 

“I don’t think he is a Republican, to tell you the truth,” LaTourette said on MSNBC, dividing Republicans on a liberal outlet that has vilified Republicans to the point where RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had previously called for a boycott. “I wish he would stop being a Republican and leave the party. That would be a nice thing.”

LaTourette continued to criticize Cruz and conservatives for trying to “cannibalize” and “criticize” the party without mentioning that conservatives have been frustrated that when Republicans–like LaTourette–finally got control of government during the 2000s they expanded it instead of shrinking it. Conservative voters have elected those like Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to make the GOP more reflective of its voters that have been trending more conservative the last 13 years since the “Boomtown” GOP crowd started controlling the federal government.

Yet, the more LaTourette and his gang of establishment Republicans want to get rid of Cruz and declare their hatred of him, the more his favorability ratings among conservatives and Tea Partiers rise.