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Cruz has been exhibiting manners that are considered to be old-fashioned.  Politeness, restraint, not getting in people’s faces and wagging a finger and shouting them down.  He really has been engaged in what I believe are time-honored behavioral techniques that represent manners, breeding, sophistication, maturity, and all that. And doing so has forced Trump into a couple of major blunders here.

.. I can’t think of another word to describe other than just respectful and polite, treat your enemies with kindness, you know, turn the other cheek, all that sort of stuff. The virtues that are found in the Bible, for example.  Cruz has been living them.

.. One of them is you never brag about anything.  You never talk about how much money you have or don’t have. You never condemn anybody for not having enough or too much. You don’t go there.  The old argument, turn the other cheek. If somebody throws something at you, don’t reduce yourself to their level.  Turn the other cheek and smile.  Basically this is where Cruz comes from.  I think he’s extremely sophisticated, well-rounded, great character, proper virtues.

..

RUSH: Fox News Sunday, Donald Trump was on with Chris Wallace who said, “What do you think of Ted Cruz?”

TRUMP:  I don’t think he has the right temperament.  I don’t think he’s got the right judgment.  You look at the way he’s dealt with the Senate where he goes in there like a… You know, frankly, like a little bit of a maniac. You’re never gonna get things done that way.  You can’t walk into the Senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people.  He’ll never get anything done, and that’s the problem with Ted.

RUSH:  Whoa.  Wait just a second here.  Doesn’t that kind of describe the way Trump has been dealing with people he disagrees with?  I mean, he’s been calling them stupid, he’s been calling them incompetent, he’s been saying you can’t get anything done with these people.

.. He’s come across as somebody who’s gonna beat somebody in negotiations, who’s gonna beat them down. He’s gonna tell them how it’s gonna be.

.. CALLER:  Hi, Rush.  Rush, just to give a little background here. Number one, I just thank the Lord Jesus Christ every day for you, Rush, ’cause you give me hope.  I just want to give you a little background

.. CALLER:  Here’s the way I look at it.  It’s over for the United States if we don’t win this election.  Trump can win.  We have to win back our country.  We cannot have another Romney.  We cannot have another McCain.  And I look at Ted Cruz as being almost like a Romney; he’s gonna lose.

.. RUSH:  When you hear him jump on Cruz the same way Democrats in the media and the Republican establishment jumps on Cruz, that doesn’t raise a little red flag for you?

CALLER:  He’s gotta do his strategy, okay?  Trump has to do his strategy.  I don’t know what his best strategy is.  You see his polls going up, Rush, his numbers going up.

.. Trump doesn’t even believe that.  Trump wants to steamroll people that stand in the way.

CALLER:  Amen to that.  God bless him for that.

..

RUSH:  All right.  When I hear any Republican, like the last one I heard saying it was Chris Christie, I cringe, and it was just a few short weeks ago.  Are you tone deaf?  Christie said,
“Look, I want the Democrats to know –” Well, what do you want the Democrats to know?

CALLER:  Yeah.

RUSH:  “I want them to know I will work with them. I can cross the aisle.  And if they have good ideas, I’ll work with them.:  And I said, what are you?  This is John McCain. This is Mitt Romney. This is exactly how we lose.  Our side does not want us working with the other side.

CALLER:  — a lot of time. (crosstalk)

RUSH:  They want us defeating the other side.

CALLER:  Christie lost me the moment that he announced his candidacy by saying that we are not angry, but we are more disappointed by our politicians in Washington.

RUSH:  Okay, fine, same thing.

CALLER:  That isn’t the truth.  We’re angry.  We’re really angry about what’s happening to our country.

RUSH:  Right.  The only thing I’m saying here is that the way Trump went after Cruz, he’s free to go after him, don’t misunderstand.  I mean, it’s a primary campaign.  But to go after Cruz for not cooperating with the Democrats?  Where has Trump said he’s going to?  And if that’s what he’s gonna do, I damn well want to know it.  You don’t want Christie to cooperate with Democrats.  We want to beat ’em.

.. RUSH:  Sounds exactly like what McCain would say of his opponent in the Republican primary, sounds exactly like what Romney would say. “I’m the guy that can go into the Senate and I can work with the Democrats and I can get along with ’em, and Ted can’t.”  And my reaction, “I didn’t know you wanted to get along with the Democrats, Mr. Trump.”  This is the first I’ve heard of that.  That’s my only reaction.  That’s not throwing Trump anywhere.  I’m just reacting.

.. RUSH: Okay.  That’s it.  So he reads a story in the New York Times where Cruz is reported to have questioned his judgment.  So Trump responds by questioning Cruz’s judgment. “I don’t think he’s got the right temperament.  I don’t think he’s got the right judgment.” And I just… (sigh) Folks, it’s disappointing to hear Trump hit Cruz the same way that the Republican establishment hits Cruz and with the same things that the media hits Cruz and the Democrats do.  You know, this is a big deal to me, this Republican belief that somehow the voters want a candidate who can compromise, who can make Washington work.

.. That’s the problem.  We don’t want somebody who can walk into the Senate and compromise what we believe with these people.  We want somebody walk in the Senate and defeat them, and ditto in the House, and ditto nationwide!  And that’s what Trump has been expressing he can do, wants to do, and will do.

.. I mean, Cruz has taken it to the floor of the Senate and taken it to the Democrats on the Senate and done exactly what conservative voters claim they want to happen.  But then to turn around and accuse him of not having temperament or judgment, not being able to work with these guys? It’s just disappointing, ’cause Trump’s not working with people. Trump’s campaign’s not based on his ability to compromise and work with people.  Trump’s campaign’s based on the people currently doing things are goofs. They’re dumb. They’re not competent. We need smarter people in there doing these things.

.. He hasn’t made it a process by which the two parties compromise and work together.  That’s for losers.  That kind of talk and that kind of belief is for Republican losers.  And I can name them for you:  Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and anybody else in this field who talks about it.  Anyway, that was one thing.  Then the Trump hit on Scalia! I’m just telling you, they raise red flags for me, folks.  That’s all.  I think it’s unfortunate. (sigh) Antonin Scalia is the last, best hope of Supreme Court along with Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito.

..

The relationship that Trump has with his supporters, I don’t think the establishment has the slightest idea of understanding it, slightest ability to understand it.

They don’t have anybody who’s ever had that kind of relationship.  It’s really true to point that out.  And, as such, they don’t understand. They don’t understand that kind of loyalty.  The loyalty they understand flows from dollars and cents, and to hell with cents.  The kind of loyalty they understand flows with dollars.  You get some dollars; in return you’re loyal to who gave them to you.  And that’s not… Trump’s support is not based on money. It’s not based on quid pro quos.  It’s totally based on ideas.  It’s one of the things that scares everybody in the establishment about Trump’s campaign.