This is a bit dated, but the Chris Matthews question is quite relevant. Last Friday on Hardball, Matthews asked Joy Reid: "Who's the Democrats' Ted Cruz?"
Reid's answer is extremely amusing, considering Reid was on the ground floor of the Obamessiah campaign, with Obamagasms like Time magazine claiming Obama was "born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope." Reid said the Democrats don't have the "authoritarian kind of impulse" of worshiping political figures: (Transcript and video below)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Joy, who's the Democrats' Ted Cruz?
JOY REID, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: That is a really good question, Chris, because I don`t think that the Democrats have that same kind of, I want to say authoritarian kind of impulse to want to follow somebody that ideologically and with that kind of fervor.
And you would have to really find his equivalent almost in media, not even in politics. He`s sort of a Father Coughlin figure.
In a recent column for the Miami Herald, Reid reveled in Cruz-birtherism:
Cruz's inflexibility when it comes to the complicated paths of other people's citizenship - which is at least as ironic as his dual nationality - has given the hardliners in the Republican Party cover to double down on their Party of No stance against reform.
And if his nihilistic style prevails, the Republican brand could be fatally damaged with Hispanic and moderate non-Hispanic voters.
But even then, Cruz could come out the winner, since he would be credited by the GOP base with stopping "amnesty" in its tracks, even if his and Rubio's pipe dream of killing Obamacare doesn't stand a chance. Because for Cruz, victory means seeming to fight to the end, 'til the last windmill dies.
Maybe that's just the Canadian way.
On her Twitter account Thursday, Reid called Cruz a Joe McCarthy doll:
Oh, and GOP? This is what you get for FINALLY listening to Rush, Palin, @ewerickson and their new Joe McCarthy doll: Ted Cruz. Heh.
— Joy Reid (@TheReidReport) October 16, 2013