Fellow Republicans Take Instant Dislike to Ted Cruz: "It just saves time."

If dislike-ability were a virtue, Ted Cruz would already be the Republican front runner.

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ANYONE BUT TED CRUZ, by Frank Bruni

You're evaluating candidates for an open job in your company, and you come across one who makes a big impression. 

He's clearly brilliant--maybe smarter than any of the others. He's a whirlwind of energy.  And man oh man can he give a presentation.  On any subject, he's informed, inflamed, precise. 

But then you talk with people who've worked with him at various stages of his career. 

They dislike him. 

No, scratch that. 

They loathe him. 

They grant him all of the virtues that you've observed, but tell you that he's the antithesis of a team player.  His thirst for the spotlight is unquenchable.  His arrogance is unalloyed.  He actually takes pride in being abrasive, as if a person's tally of detractors measures his fearlessness, not his obnoxiousness. 

Do you hire this applicant? 

No way. 

And that's why voters should be wary--very wary--of Ted Cruz... 

...Anyone but Cruz: That's the leitmotif of his life, stretching back to college at Princeton.  His freshman roommate, Craig Mazin, told Patricia Murphy of The Daily Beast: "I would rather have anybody else be the President of the United States.  Anyone.  I would rather pick somebody from the phone book." 

It's not easy to come across on-the-record quotes like that, and Mazin's words suggest a disdain that transcends ideology.  They bear heeding. 

So does Cruz' experience in the policy shop of George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.  After Bush took office, other full-time advisers got plum jobs in the White House.  Cruz was sent packing to the Siberia of the Federal Trade Commission... 

...(One) Bush 2000 alumnus said to me: "Why do people take such an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It just saves time." 

His three signature moments in the Senate have been a florid smearing of Chuck Hagel with no achievable purpose other than attention for Ted Cruz, a flamboyant rebellion against Obamacare with no achievable purpose other than attention for Ted Cruz, and a fiery protest of federal funding for Planned Parenthood with no achievable purpose other than attention for Ted Cruz.  Notice any pattern?... 

...More recently, Senate Republicans denied Cruz a procedural courtesy that's typically pro forma... 

...Many politicians rankle peers.  Many have detractors.  Cruz generates antipathy of an entirely different magnitude.  It's so pronounced and so pervasive that he's been forced to acknowledge it, and he spins it as the price invariably paid by an outsider who challenges the status quo, clings to principle and never backs down. 

No, it's the fruit of a combative style and consuming solipsism that would make him an insufferable, unendurable president.  And if there's any sense left in this election and mercy in this world, it will undo him soon enough. 

what eye thynk:  I can only imagine the moment in a Ted Cruz presidency when Congress doesn't give him what he wants.  Judging by the way he has acted as a Senator, I expect that would involve Mr. Cruz retreating to his second floor White House living quarters and refusing to return to the Oval Office until he gets his way.

Which could only be observed as a positive step for the country.

You can read Mr. Bruni's full Op-ed piece here