Now that Cotton is a senator himself, he appears to be following the outline of Cruz’s freshman year playbook: Open big, ruffle feathers, and keep running.
Like Cruz, Cotton has stirred controversy in Senate hearings. Referring to the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Cotton said that detainees “could rot in hell” and that the problem with Gitmo is there are “too many empty beds.”
And, like Cruz was accused of undermining a fiscal deal between the White House and House Speaker John Boehner, Cotton is now being accused of undermining the White House in its nuclear talks with Iran, and making life difficult for Bob Corker, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman who is seeking bipartisan action on Iran.
Sure, the shutdown and the Iran letter are very different circumstances, but the tactic is similar: rally like-minded members of the party to off-ramp the plans of establishment powers. And in the process, precipitate rumors of a future presidential run.
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