It has been about 272 days since Texas Senator Ted Cruz was sworn in as a United States Senator in Washington, D.C. That’s the same amount of time that Representative Steve Daines, Montana’s only Congressman, has been in office. In a place based on seniority, both probably have lousy offices, and they probably still get lost most days walking around the U.S. Capitol.

By most accounts Cruz is the “mastermind” behind this ridiculous strategy to defund ObamaCare and tie it to the Federal budget. Daines is following the Cruz strategy with several other Tea Party members.

Speaker of the House John Boehner is weakened because he’s afraid of the Tea Party caucus, as is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Cruz has positioned himself as the leader of the Tea Party, not to mention the leader of the House and Senate Republicans. Tea Party members like Cruz and Daines are the reason many of us moderates have said, “See ya” to the GOP.

As a reminder, Obamacare was passed by both houses of Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court. In 2012, the GOP’s nominee for President, Mitt Romney, (who vowed to defund Obamacare if elected) lost to Barack Obama. Even in Montana, Jon Tester, who voted for Obamacare beat Denny Rehberg, who ran against Obamacare.

Daines might consider this, as he is likely running for U.S. Senate.

The conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal says the Republicans are “in a difficult spot” and that their editorial board “opposed this shutdown strategy” and they close their opinion with some advice, “give up on the impossible task of defunding or delaying ObamaCare at the current moment and focus instead on a quick if smaller policy victory.” They also throw a dose of realism on the Tea Party strategy saying, “…the biggest lie of this shutdown drama is that a minority of the Republican caucus in one branch of Congress can repeal ObamaCare as long as Mr. Obama is in the Oval Office.”

As for Daines, Montana’s largest newspaper has thrown a dose of reality his way, too. The Billings Gazette editorial board writes that the “House must end senseless shutdown,” and they add: 

Let the House have a vote on a simple continuing budget resolution. We call on Montana’s sole U.S. representative, Steve Daines, to support a “clean” continuing budget resolution so the 12,000 furloughed Montanans can get back to work.

Daines recently said he was donating his salary during the government shutdown which is easy to do when you are the 41st richest member of Congress. Additionally, for him to keep limited staff working also raises a myriad of problems – for staff and constituents – even if the staff is just volunteering.

It’s time for Daines to stop this nonsense – it’s time for him to lead.

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