WSJ to Cruz: Get Over Yourself

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz is playing fast and loose with the truth in addressing last month's Senate rejection of stricter gun-control legislation, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In particular, Journal editors took offense at comments the Texas Republican made criticizing the newspaper while defending his filibuster strategy against gun-control bills.

In a speech last weekend to FreedomWorks, Cruz said, "All of the reporters said, 'OK, you guys have lost, and that shows what imbeciles you are.' In fact, the WSJ wrote two op-eds bashing Rand [Paul] and Mike [Lee] and me for being imbeciles for fighting on this. Didn't we understand?"

The Journal's reaction: "This account is wrong about his strategy, our commentary, and what happened," the editors wrote last Friday. "We also didn't call him an 'imbecile,' or any other name."

Cruz's strategy was to prevent any votes on gun control through the use of the filibuster.

"We criticized that as misguided, since it would let Senate Democrats avoid difficult votes and open Republicans to Mr. Obama's criticism that they were obstructionists for blocking a Senate debate and votes," the editorial stated.

"Mr. Cruz will have more success in the Senate, and in his mooted presidential candidacy, if he stops pretending that he's Nathan Hale and everyone else is Benedict Arnold."