After spending the past few months spearheading the effort to defund Obamacare, Sen. Ted Cruz relented Wednesday, saying he would not get in the way of a bipartisan spending bill that reopens the federal government and increases the nation’s borrowing limit.
The announcement marked the end of a tumultuous three-month span of highs and lows for Mr. Cruz, who bolstered his stock among grass-roots conservatives and tea partyers, but also drew the ire of lawmakers who said his no-holds-barred legislative approach was sullying the Republican brand and pushing the nation to the bring of an economic crisis.
Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist, said that the Cruz approach could come back to haunt it in the next spending battle and the 2014 election.
“All or nothing was really a dumb move,” Mr. O’Connell said. “Because they decided to shoot for the moon, they came out the loser, the GOP brand is at an all-time low and somehow Obamacare has increased in public favorability.”
