Ted Cruz Fires Top Aide for Spreading Misinformation on Marco Rubio

Mr. Cruz went on to call Mr. Tyler a “good man,” but that his sharing of the story was “a grave error in judgment.”

.. The firing represents a public admission of what Mr. Rubio and his aides have angrily claimed for weeks: that the Cruz campaign is undertaking unfair and deceitful tactics to undermine rivals, such as a using manipulated photograph, doctored by Cruz aides, that suggested Mr. Rubio had shaken hands with President Obama in front of the Capitol in Washington.

Ted Cruz Won’t Be Denied

I’d seldom heard a voice as ripe with self-regard — as juicy with it — as his. He’s pomposity’s plum tomato.

.. We continue to underestimate him. He’s even craftier than we appreciated. He’s more devious than we realized.

.. By one calculation, just the super PAC supporting Bush has lavished nearly $25 million on attack ads against Rubio

.. Less than half that amount has been spent on all ads against Cruz, and spending on New Hampshire ads against Rubio since January 1st has been quadruple that of spending on those against Cruz.

.. Cruz is to some extent Santorum’s second coming, but with more guile, more gall, more money and a better organization.

.. two of the bluntest, smartest Republican strategists I know confided to me that while they think the race is still unpredictable, they’d wager on Cruz as their party’s nominee if forced to make a bet.

They cringed as they said it. He appalls them. But he also impresses them. He knows what he’s doing and he’ll do what it takes.

Dirty Tricks. Blue-Collar Economics

There was nothing subtle about his disgraceful attacks on Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for president, although Trump at times tried to wrap them in a hilariously transparent tissue of concern about Cruz’s welfare.

.. The Cruz tactic wasn’t admirable, yet it is hardly unprecedented for campaigns to spread rumors favorable to their interests.

The fact is that the Republican Party can’t be dependent on working-class voters at the same time that its default economic agenda has little to say to them. If Trump has opened up the space for a conversation in the GOP about how to connect with these voters and their concerns, then his carnival show will have had some significant upside.