“Every time I go on the radio, you ask the questions that the Dewhurst campaign want you to ask.”
This, from the guy who got caught red-handed trying to influence debate questions by a fellow candidate in order to team up against Lt. Governor Dewhurst!
Listen to the radio confrontation between Ted Cruz and Texas Senator Dan Patrick on Patrick’s “The Bell and Patrick” radio show, for yourself:
Mr. Cruz argued with Patrick for 30 minutes on the Baker and Patrick Radio Show that airs on KSEV radio in the Houston area at 4 PM, week days. He unfortunately began with the flat statement that Senator Patrick had endorsed Dewhurst in the Senate race. You would think that a man would know that sort of thing, right? As Patrick said, if he’d done so, it would be public knowledge.
Cruz actually claimed that all Republicans and Democrats play a “game” with legislation they don’t want to pass, by entering into a conspiracy to pass a bill in one chamber in Session, and then in the other the next, but cheat to keep them from passing to law.
Senator Patrick spent quite a bit of time explaining the complicated workings of the Texas Senate, especially the work on the Sanctuary Cities Bills (SB 29 and HB 41) during last Summer’s Special Session of the 82nd Texas Legislature.
The two discussed the “Rose Bush Rule,” which requires 21 members of the Senate to vote in favor of bringing any issue up for a vote. Patrick reminded Cruz that the Senate members, not the Lieutenant Governor, vote on the rules of the Senate. Patrick also explained that the Lieutenant Governor has the authority to suspend that rule in a Special Session, but not in a Regular Session.
Cruz asked Patrick whether Patrick would have been able to pass Sanctuary Cities if he had been Lt. Governor. Patrick said, “No,” because “the only thing you can do is pass it out of the Senate.” Patrick said that Dewhurst had warned the Democrats in the Regular session that if they blocked the bill in the Regular Session, he would suspend the 21 vote rule in the Special Session. Patrick reported that Dewhurst did suspend the rule as he said, in order to pass the Sanctuary Cities Bill with over two weeks left in the SS and spoke of the frustration of having the Bill sit in Committee in the House.
He also told Cruz that all 19 Republican Senators had met on the issue and decided to pass SB29 as a separate Bill, rather than to try to tack HB41 as an amendment to the School Finance Bill. They were concerned that the school funding bill would be held up, preventing schools from knowing their budget until August.
Cruz ignored Patrick’s admonition to campaign on his own merits and plans, returning again and again to statements about what people “intend,” “know,” or ” believe.” Cruz accused Patrick and others of working against him, assigning underhanded motives to them, such as how much “better” for Patrick it will be to get Dewhurst out of Austin.
The creepiest bit of Cruz’ argument was this line, delivered with a strategic lowering of the voice at the last: “You have been acting as a surrogate for Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and I have seen you do it.”
I’ve described Cruz’ reactions to me when I was still a supporter asking him to cut back on the negative campaigning. At our County forum in February and then in New Braunfels. At the New Braunfels meet, he couldn’t walk away so he engaged me in debate. He kept coming at me for twenty minutes although others had questions.
Here’s a news report about another episode of over-reacting to questioning by another woman in Fort Worth at the RPT convention.
Cruz is not a “fighter” in any good sense of the word. Rather than a champion or defender, he’s a bully and a brawler. When faced with even mild opposition, he goes out of his way to prove the other person absolutely wrong. As Patrick said, he can “make numbers lie,” and has no problem with stretching the truth if it has what he calls “a basis in fact.” He sprinkles his speeches with dramatic descriptions of imagined conspiracies such as the ones above, and the notion that “Austin” Republicans had all agreed to make sure that “no one with a ‘z’ in his name is elected to State-wide office.”
For other summaries of the episode, each with their own twist, see the Houston Chronicle and Texas Tribune. But listen to the actual recording if you want the real story.
WingRight 
Texas knows Dan Patrick has slammed – on more than one occasion – David Dewhurst for personally killing TSA & Sanctuary Cities. Patrick said Dewhurst will undermine his members and not stand up to the federal government; is that kind of person we need in the U.S. Senate?
As for the interview, Ted Cruz handled himself well in my view.. Patrick calling Cruz a liar on the endorsement issue was over the top! Was it a purposeful attack? Patrick has appeared in PC for Dewhurst as well as has ‘talked him up’ on Patrick’s fbook page. I can personally show you many tweets wherein Dewhurst fans truly believed Patrick endorsed Dewhurst. Yet, probably from prior experience, I knew to look for a formal endorsement. On Patrick’s endorsement list, akin to Dewhurst’s list of endorsements -Patrick HAS NOT formally endorsed moderate Dewhurst.
So Beverly, please tell Texas why Patrick continues to REFUSE to endorse moderate Dewhurst for U.S. Senate?
Posted by StaceinTexas | July 3, 2012, 6:36 AMCruz is a champion of the advice from the Sun Tsu’s Art of War: “Call your enemy what you are.” That’s not my favorite lesson from the book, and it’s not an upright, ethical philosophy for life except in life and death struggles.
Cruz shouldn’t have gone on the offensive right off the bat. He sure shouldn’t have said flat out that Senator Patrick, a respected and respectable radio news commentator, has been fed questions from the Dewhurst campaign. He impugned Patrick’s honor and his journalism. He then claimed to have “seen” the Senator repeatedly acting as a “surrogate” for Governor Dewhurst.
The occasions in which Patrick said negative things against Dewhurst were said in anger, between May 24 and June 2 – all from a single episode on May 24. As he said, he is not angry at Dewhurst anymore. He’s probably regretting words he said in anger in the presence of a reporter. While “all’s fair in love and war,” Cruz should remember Patrick’s advice: he needs to learn to ask advice and that, come August, we will all have to learn to work together as Republicans.
Everyone may listen to the interview/confrontation for themselves, so we’ll let them decide whether or not Cruz “handled himself well. I obviously think he showed us a side of himself that he’s been trying to conceal – the angry, conspiracy-weaving side that will not accept any criticism.
Senator Dan Patrick has said that he won’t endorse in this race, although he could be forgiven after the accusations by Cruz in this interview. Why do you accuse him of not meaning what he says?
Posted by bnuckols | July 3, 2012, 10:13 AMI did not hear this exchange between Patrick and Cruz, however, it truly makes no difference to me. I’ll say, right up front, I am a Cruz supporter. I have supported Dan Patrick for a while now but am really disappointed in him with this situation. I’m not going to argue that Cruz’s conspiracy theory’s are right but for someone like Dan Patrick, to even suggest that David Dewhurst is conservative makes me question Patrick. Dewhurst has shown himself time and again to be a moderate, at best. Dewhurst is the one that has been doing all of the negative campaigning and mud-slinging. I asked a couple of people I know (my sister and her husband), who are Dewhurst supporters, to really listen to the ads Dewhurst is putting out and see how he sells himself. After a few weeks of listening my sister called me up and told me that she NEVER heard one thing that Dewhurst said he did but that EVERY ad was nothing but an attack on Cruz. This from a Dewhurst supporter. Cruz has been endorsed by the most conservative people i the country. If I were Cruz I might feel like there was a conspiracy too. I’m afraid that Patrick may have been in Austin too long now and is creeping to the middle. I accuse Patrick of not meaning what he says as far as an endorsement because I listen to his show and hear the positive’s on Dewhurst and negatives on Cruz. Kind of ironic that Dewhurst was able to get this audio for his latest ad, isn’t it. If I believed in conspiracies I might think the whole thing was set up to give “Desperate Dewhurst” one last chance. Come on, Dan…..you’re better then this. At least you used to be!
Oh yeah, it is abolutely true that Dewhurst held up the “sanctuary city” bill…..who are you trying to convince, yourself?
Posted by robert perkins | July 24, 2012, 8:29 PMWhat you are essentialLy saying is that Dan Patrick and 17 other Texas Republican Senators are lying about the Sanctuary and TSA bills. And that there is a conspiracy.
But . . . You didn’t listen to the recording.
Posted by bnuckols | July 24, 2012, 10:29 PMAnd now Dan Patrick is the biggest cruz supporter out there… Politics.
Posted by April | February 10, 2016, 5:23 PM