The real Ted Cruz is beginning to leak through . . . with consequences

OK, so this is more politics.  But it can't wait.

We've long known that Ted Cruz is a mean snake, albeit a smart one.   But his slick manner, which has always seemed slimey to me, apparently fools a lot of people, particularly conservative evangelicals.    Maybe because so many of their preachers have this same inauthentic public persona, while having a hidden dark side that often gets them in trouble.

In the Iowa caucus, a story surfaced that the Cruz campaign had spread a false rumor that Ben Carson was leaving the race, and the Cruz people were asking for his supporters to vote for Cruz.   This was an email notice that went out to people just before their caucuses started on Monday night.

They really did intentionally spread a false rumor;  but at first Ted Cruz apologized to Carson and claimed that they were just passing on a news report that they claimed came from CNN.   Now it turns out there is a lot more to this story.

First, CNN has strongly denied that they said Carson was getting out of the race, but only that he was going home to Florida before going on to New Hampshire and South Carolina.   Rachel Maddow reported tonight on MSNBC that Carson's wife had come to Iowa and was in one of the caucuses, where a Cruz representative had earlier told the group there that Carson was dropping out and asked for their votes.    Mrs. Carson had to stand up and correct this misinformation.

Other caucus goers have said that they received this Cruz email just before the caucuses began -- and that the Cruz campaign did not sent out a correction after the Carson campaign told the Cruz people directly that the rumors were incorrect.

So, even if we grant that it was "an honest mistake," which it most certainly was not, there is no excuse for not trying to undo the damage by sending out a correction.

So, yes, Ted Cruz's mean, unlikeable side is showing through the pious slime.   Conservative evangelicals do like their "repentant bad boys," but I don't think they will like this kind of abject sleeziness -- especially against the nice-guy evangelicals' other favorite, Ben Carson.

Having gotten only 1% of the caucus vote in Iowa, the state he won four years ago, Rick Santorum ended his campaign -- and endorsed Marco Rubio.   One might have expected he would throw his support to Cruz, given their similar hard right, evangelical appeal.   Is this just a personal preference?   Or is Santorum sending a message to the right wing voters?

And, in fact, the first post-caucus national poll is out tonight from Public Policy Polling, one of the more respected polls.   It is not good news for Cruz or Trump.   Trump's lead is down and Cruz and Rubio are now tied for second nationally.   Here's the breakdown:

25%     Trump                       
21%     Cruz        
21%     Rubio         
11%     Carson     
   5%    Bush, Kasich, and Paul
   3%    Christie and Fiorino

Since the last PPP poll in mid-December, Trump has dropped from 34% (loss of 9%), Cruz has gone up from 18% (gain of 3%), and Rubio is up from 13% (gain of 8%).   Carson is up from 6% (gain of 5%).

Ralph