known as Donald Trump , the leading
Republican presidential candidates tried a new
tack Tuesday night: ignore him.
Trump didn’t go anywhere, of course. Attacks
did flow in from candidates who found
themselves farther from center stage than
ever -– including, notably, Jeb Bush .
But it’s as if his front-running status is so
familiar that his rivals for the most part chose
not to fight him, as the race settles into its
lanes. At a tense time in the nation, attention
turned to once familiar –- even old-school -–
arguments inside the Republican Party.
A scattered debate that focused almost
exclusively on foreign policy and national
security revealed tension between the GOP’s
hawkish and libertarian strains, its Senate and
gubernatorial leaders, and two first-term
senators who may well be the last Republican
candidates standing.
The most tense exchanges pitted Ted Cruz
against Marco Rubio, the onetime allies who
now see themselves as each other’s most
serious rival. Rubio attacked Cruz for
supporting an end to surveillance programs
and limiting defense spending, while Cruz hit
Rubio hard over immigration.
“We are now at a time where we need more
tools, not less tools,” Rubio said. Later, he
added: “You can’t carpet-bomb ISIS if you
don’t have planes and bombs to attack them
with.”
Cruz accused Rubio of distorting his record,
and -– a harsher charge –- empowering the
Obama administration’s mission.
“One of the problems with Marco's foreign
policy is he is far too often supported Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama undermining
governments in the Middle East that have
helped radical Islamic terrorists,” Cruz said.
It left Chris Christie open to argue a basic
point -– that the fights on stage probably
weren’t registering with voters who are jittery
in the wake of world and national events.
“Let's talk about how we do this and not
which bill which these guys like more. People
don't care about that,” Christie said.
The anti-Trump charge was left mostly to
Bush, whose migration away from center
stage has been accompanied by a desire to
fight with the man who still occupies it. Bush
attacked Trump for a lack of “seriousness,”
noting snidely at one point that he was giving
him “a bit of your own medicine.”
“Donald is great at the one-liners. But he’s a
chaos candidate. And he’d be a chaos
president,” Bush said, in a line worked up
sufficiently in advance so that his campaign
had a Website with that label ready to go.
Trump brushed the attacks aside, taunting
Bush over his poll numbers and with now-
familiar rejoinders.
“I know you’re trying to build up your energy,
Jeb, but it’s not working,” he said.
“You started off over here and moving over
further and further,” Trump said later, referring
to Bush’s position on the stage. “Pretty soon
you’re gonna be off the end.”
With voting drawing near, the candidates are
choosing the battles that work for them. Cruz
and Rubio will claw at each other’s records;
Christie, John Kasich, and Carly Fiorina will
post up against the candidates who work in
Washington; Bush is now positioning himself
as the main anti-Trump force in the race.
The last Republican debate of the year left
the GOP where it’s been at the start of this
wild, six-month run. Trump may fade, but it
looks increasingly likely that it won’t be what
the other candidates say about him that
makes it happen.
Toward the end of the debate, Trump even felt
generous toward Cruz –- now his closest rival
in Iowa, and perhaps nationally.
“He has a wonderful temperament. He’s just
fine – don’t worry about it,” Trump said. “You
better not attack.”
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