James Antle of the Washington Examiner focuses on conservative angst surrounding three of the candidates trailing Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Conservatives were happy when three freshman senators who defeated establishment candidates in Republican primaries —Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul — announced for president last year. Now that two of the three are well-positioned for the primaries and Cruz is leading in Iowa, they should be ecstatic.
But there is increasing unease in conservative circles that the attacks they have been launching against one another will damage all three of them to the benefit of other, less conservative candidates. Cruz and Rubio in particular have started hitting each other as they both have risen in the polls, emphasizing what in the past would have seemed like minor ideological and tactical differences.
Because Rubio is also vying for establishment support, he is taking at least as much friendly fire from candidates like Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, who are aiming at moderate voters in New Hampshire. But in an anti-establishment year, it’s shots from the Right on Rubio’s immigration record that could do the most damage. “It could be a bloodbath,” complained one Washington conservative activist. …
… More recently, Paul has jabbed at Cruz as the Texas senator swipes the Kentucky lawmaker’s libertarian base. Paul has accused his erstwhile ally of trying to have it “both ways” on immigration, surveillance and foreign policy. When Donald Trump started raising “birther” questions about Cruz’s constitutional eligibility for the presidency — Cruz was born in Canada to an American citizen mother — Paul quipped that his Senate colleague was qualified to be Canadian prime minister.
That last bit is an example of what has some movement conservatives concerned. Club for Growth President David McIntosh, a former Republican congressman, has publicly argued the three senators should go after Trump rather than each other. “I think they are all good leaders so it pains me to see them attack each other,” he said. “It’s like they are fighting to come in second.”