It’s Chip Roy, who was the chief ghostwriter for Rick Perry’s Fed Up! Erickson is especially impressedthat Cruz did not turn to a K Street lobbying firm for a chief, as many new members do. Erickson writes:
[The decision] signals Senator-Elect Ted Cruz is not going to Washington sell out the conviction he ran on, but actually, as we’ve all known, does believe in federalism, the tenth amendment, and limited government.
What I find revealing about the choice of Roy is that Cruz–who has been making noise as a potential contender for the White House in 2016—appears to be putting his chips on the tea party as the future of the Republican party. In doing so, he is aligning himself with insurgents like Rand Paul and, of course, the chief insurgent, Jim DeMint, who helped fund Cruz’s Senate race.
Is this a good bet? I’m dubious. The tea party has a lot in common with the old Ross Perot “United We Stand” bunch. These groups seldom have staying power. Granted, the Kochs’ involvement makes the tea party’s survival more likely, at least in the short run, but in the establishment almost always prevails. It may prove to be the case, though, that Cruz is so appealing that he can transcend the factionalism in the Republican party. The strength of the Republican field in 2016 is that it is filled with big names: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee. Only Rubio and Cruz qualify as fresh faces, though, and that might be where the rank-and-file look first.
