“Which is better -- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”

― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

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Ted Cruz has ended his speechifying, on time and on message to the end. His last words were basically a repeat of what he had said time and time again this week: "Any vote for cloture -- any vote to allow Harry Reid to add funding for Obamacare with just a 51-vote threshold -- a vote for cloture is a vote for Obamacare."

In other words, when Mitch McConnell votes for cloture, as he has said he will, McConnell will be voting for ObamaCare and betraying his party.

When Cruz's fellow senator from Texas, John Cornyn, votes for cloture, as he has said he will, Cornyn will be voting for ObamaCare.

The same is true of Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, and Bob Corker of Tennessee, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and John McCain of Arizona, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. All backers of ObamaCare, as helpfully defined by the junior senator from Texas.

It is a message that the Tea Party and its various support organizations have picked up and amplified to the Republican base, and as one measure of its effectiveness, every single GOP candidate seeking to replace Chambliss here in Georgia has come out and said that they support Cruz and would not vote to invoke cloture.

Up in Washington, the gambit is turning the GOP into a rather amusing cross between "Lord of the Flies" and "Mean Girls." Because these days, there's nothing more damaging to a Republican's reputation and political future than to be accused by the party's new cult hero of supporting ObamaCare.

On Fox News over the weekend, Chris Wallace noted that he got reams of opposition research on Cruz  -- from "top Republicans" -- once it was announced that Cruz would be appearing on his show. A top aide to Sen. John McCain has been quoted as saying that his boss "(blank)ing hates" Cruz. (see update below).

And as Politico reports:

"Sen. John Boozman lit into Sen. Ted Cruz during a closed-door meeting this week, underscoring the mounting tension within the Senate Republican Conference over the Texas freshman’s hardball tactics on Obamacare.

Boozman is usually quiet and reserved in private sessions, but on Tuesday he could no longer keep his anger reserved, according to four people who witnessed the exchange.

Boozman, an Arkansas Republican elected in 2010, stood up and yelled at Cruz, expressing frustration that his staff was deluged with belligerent phone calls mostly from out-of-state activists attacking the senator over the issue of defunding Obamacare, according to several sources familiar with the exchange. Boozman also slammed Cruz for suggesting Republicans were in favor of the three-year-old law even though all of them opposed it and have repeatedly voted to repeal it.

Staring at Cruz, Boozman said he hasn’t been bullied since the seventh grade and he wouldn’t be bullied now."

Several Republicans cheered Boozman and one quipped: “A sleeping bear had been awoken.”

I have no sympathy whatsover for those Republicans who feel they are being slimed by Cruz and his followers. This is the party that they have chosen to create, and the smug, supremely ambitious Cruz is merely its ultimate expression taken human form.

"Whatever one sows, that will he also reap."

Enjoy, gentlemen.

I know I am.

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UPDATE:

McCain is now on the floor responding to Cruz. As he notes, we just had an election in which ObamaCare played an important role, and Republicans lost. "All of us should respect the outcome of elections that express the will of the people," McCain said, a statement than in normal times would be considered a truism but in today's Republican Party will be taken as an act of outright treason.

McCain also harshly condemned Cruz for comparing those who say that ObamaCare cannot be defunded to those who advised that Adolph Hitler could not be stopped and should be appeased. "That allegation does a great disservice to those great Americans who stood up and said that what is happening in Europe cannot stand," McCain said, noting that he had personally expressed his dissatisfaction to Cruz.